Second life as a Pokemon Trainer
by crackjack.the.ripper
Summary: Ever wonder what it would be like if you lived in the world of Pokemon? Come join our MC and find out just what he does.
1. Chapter 1

**Second life as a Pokémon Trainer**

 **Chapter-0**

*Ring-ring*...

*Ring-ring*...

"Ahh...uff.. I'm up already stop uuu..."I groan as I reach for the alarm.

"What!?... when did it become so late, if I don't get ready soon I'll it..." I rush out of bed to wash up and change out of my PJs into my faded jeans and t-shirt.

Anyway you might all be wondering what this is all about, well time for some introductions. Hi my name is John, (AN: Forgive my poor naming sense, took me 15 minutes to decide our Mc's name) no second name or some such, then again hardly anyone at St. Michael's orphanage has one and those who do sure like to brag about it. Enough of that back to my intro as I said my name's John, 17 years old, male. Just one more year and I'm out of this place no more cramped rooms shared with 5 other kids, no more long lines to use the restroom or any of that. I already had my life planned out, well sort of, Mr. Smith offered me a fulltime job at his repair shop after I graduate as I am good at mending things and I already work there in my time off, so that's one thing I don't have fret over. Well its not much but working in a repair shop (the only repair shop) in the small town of Pinkerton ensures a steady job.

"Ugh.. I'm seriously gonna be late, if I ever get my hands on Paul I'll wring his neck, always messing with my alarm." I mutter. Of all the days to be late why today when the Gods have smiled on our small backwater town of Pinkerton, yes a horrible name I know. As for what's so special today you ask well there's gonna be a comic and anime convention held in town, why here I don't know, they usually make a stop over by Sun city on their cross country tour, but heck no complaints. As a fan of many comics and anime attending such an event is definitely on my bucket list. All the heroes brave and strong, the many adventures, the good friends and companions, it all fills me with a sense of happiness. As for my favourite anime/game/comic it has to be Pokémon. Ever since I first watched Pokémon with the other kids here in our old beat up TV set I became a fan. Just something about setting off on an adventure with your Pokémon by your side, the freedom, the fun and friends... sigh, to a lonely shut-in it was a dream, a fantasy. Now I might miss out on the convention if the tickets are all sold out, stupid Paul I'll get you back for this one. I curse inwardly as I hastily rushed out the door.

I run towards the town square where a couple of my best friends were waiting for me so we could head out together. I'm just about out of breath as I turn a corner as I see Ken and Brandon waving excitedly at me.

"What took you?"-Ken asks.

"Sorry, problem with the alarm."- I reply lamely.

"Save the apology, how about you buy us the tickets "Mr. I've got a job""-Brandon says as he starts rushing us to the venue.

"Get your tickets yourself you fat pig."I retort as we head towards the ticket counter in front of the convention hall on the other side of the square. Heaven knows how much I had to save for this, I knew Brandon was kidding; he's a nice guy under all that fat. Brandon's father owns the town's only mart and Ken's father is the town school's principal (I know yikes), so its not that they can't get their own tickets. As we wait in line it strikes me as to just how many people attend these conventions even if they are held in this small backwater town of Pinkerton, "snort" and Sister Mary Catherine always tells us that comics and cartoons are waste of time and resources through which no future could be made. Yeah, tell that to the old man in front of us in the line in the bright Pikachu costume, damn he looks just like those Poke-maniacs on my Game boy advanced. I know what you might all be thinking, a fan of Pokémon such as I still using a beat up GBA well it was all I could get at St Michael's, the only reason it was even there was because it was busted, thankfully with my skills I managed to fix it. Brandon and Ken like to brag about owning NDS consoles but are at least nice enough to share it with me sometimes (even they are still out dated what with the 3DS launched nearly a year back... sigh well what do you expect from a small town).

We start discussing about various things as the line slowly progresses such as what stalls might be setup inside, what souvenirs we should to buy, etc etc. Its nearly our turn at the counter as the old "Pikachu" man makes his way to the counter, he surprisingly takes out a $100 bill to pay, I mean I know tickets are usually expensive but since the convention's being held so out of place here the ticket price is just $20 for one. As I peek closer I find that the old man's wallet is packed with a bunch of $100 bills, wow this old guy's loaded. Feeling extremely envious and the bite from the money gone from my pocket we eventually make our way in.

I don't know what I was expecting but the convention was simply amazing, I mean sure it wasn't as big as those seen on TV but still actually being here was really exciting. We soon rush over to a stall showcasing Gundams; simply wow, they all looked so cool. We slowly make our way through the convention checking out all the stalls, we drool at the Naruto ninja shurikens and kunais on display wondering if we could practise using them, we visit the Marvel universe stall checking the latest news and arguing over which Marvel character is better and as we reach the DC universe stall while we discuss the costume contest to be held in the afternoon we spot Billy and Keith over at the Anime memorabilia and souvenir stall as they distract the stall keeper while their gang of goons nick small trinkets off the shelves. The upright and just Ken tries to walk up and expose them but Brandon and I pull him back, it wasn't worth it to get on the bad side of Billy and Keith seeing as they were the kids of the town's Mayor and Sheriff respectively, they behaved like they owned the town and made all the laws which in a way they did. Just as we were cursing them silently the old "Pikachu" man from back in the line shows up on scene and exposes them red handed. Soon the stall keeper and the nearby staff apprehend the lot and force them to turn over everything they nicked, charge a huge fine then unceremoniously drag them out the convention. As they are being dragged out Keith catches sight of us and yells "What'er you lookin at? Think this is funny do ya, just wait Johnny boy you ain't got no place to run." I gulp, Keith and Billy may have some reservations when picking on Ken or Brandon because of their parent's influence but they had no qualms beating me up, I usually became their personal punching bag whenever they want to let off some steam.

Damn, it was such a nice day too. Old "Pikachu" man walks up to us hearing the racket asking "You boys know each other?"

"Wish I could say I don't, Mr..."-I reply.

"Oh where are my manners, you can just call me Damos"-Old "Pikachu" man (Damos) introduces himself.

Damos, I sort of get a vague feeling I've heard that name before although its not a very common name.

"Well that was amazing Mr. Damos, the way you handled those guys."-Ken compliments him.

"Just Damos is fine young man, but I must admit you would have done the same if your friends weren't holding you back."-Damos said while throwing a glance at Brandon and me.

"Please don't judge them, they did so to protect me, Billy and Keith have a lot of influence in this town and can pretty much get away with anything."-Good ol Ken standing up for us.

"Is that so..."-Damos.

"Well its not like I haven't tried standing up to them, it was all futile the only thing I got was a target on my head as a personal punching bag."-I try to explain.

"Its not so bad for Ken and me but going against them could create a lot of trouble for John. In fact it was John who usually stood up to them first before..."-Brandon adds.

"Enough they're gone now, let's not let past events spoil the present."-I cut in.

"Let's all just head to the Pokémon stall and check it out, I heard that there's a new movie about to be released."-Ken says to try and diffuse the tension.

"Oh, well I hope you lads won't mind if I join you I'm a big fan of Pokémon myself."-Damos.

*Oh really, I could never have guessed.* I think to myself, my opinion of Damos is not that great, though I know he's a good guy a part of me blames him for the trouble I'll have to deal with later. We move on accompanied by Damos as we discuss various topics related to Pokémon, mainly the inconsistencies between the anime and game such as why we have to trade some Pokémon for them to evolve, or like why Scyther and some other large flying types can't learn "fly" but small birds like Pidgy or Spearow can, why Pokémon can only learn four moves and why can't the game be more flexible with battles like in the anime where they come up with new combination moves and strategies, even the most basic why can't Pokémon in the game dodge or jump out of the way, etc.

"I mean, the starters can't spawn in the wild what's with that how am I "gonna catch em all" without trading and what's with version specific Pokémon. To top it all of why are there almost no fully evolved Pokémon in the wild huh huh."-Brandon.

"Exactly, not to mention why are ground type attacks ineffective on flying and levitating Pokémon, ok its understandable that moves like magnitude, dig or earthquake might not work but projectile moves like mud shot or mud bomb not working is just rubbish."- I add on.

"Come on if we are taking things that don't make sense it has to be about Pokémon and some of their moves or lack thereof, like how Pokémon without any arms or such appendages can use punch moves, or or the fact that ostriches like Dodrio can learn fly while Yanmega or Scyther can't. It really makes you wonder what was Gamefreak thinking."-Ken.

"Hohoho this conversation seems very interesting, I have to admit though what you kids said makes perfect sense but you also can't expect these issues to be fixed. No two Pokémon are the same, their abilities cannot be just defined by stats or broad generalisations due to typing and abilities. To get each and every small detail right is simply not possible."-Damos joins in.

"You say that like you have seen actual Pokmon haha..."-me.

"Well come on now be reasonable if those poor game creators want to make a complete realistic representation it would take a huge amount of time and money and lets not forget to mention the size of your game would be huge as well."-Damos.

"Haha that's true, its simply not practical here and now."-Ken.

"Whose side are you on; I want a completely realistic game where we can have an experience just like the protagonists in the anime. Humph if I could just get a chance I'd show them how to be a real Pokémon master, Ash is really disappointing he barely caught six Pokémon in the last season."-Brandon.

"Oooh so you think you kids could be better trainers if given the chance do you. Hahaha"-Damos.

"Pokémon trainer.. *snort*.. I'd be a Pokémon master in no time, heck I could be Champion of all regions, beat any challenger to the ground, no Pokémon would be a challenge, the Pokémon centers would be filled with my opponent's Pokémon bwahahaha."-Brandon.

"Is it.."-Damos.

"I don't know about battling but I would rather pursue Pokémon research and study their anatomy as well as the technology there."-Ken.

"Wonderful, we now have a new boss of an evil organisation; Piggy of Team Hog and his right hand man Professor Dissection."- I joke around.

*Pfft..* Damos and I can barely hold in our laughter as Ken and Brandon glare at us.

"Haha very funny John, what would you do if you were in the Pokémon world?"- Ken.

"Yeah let's hear your take on it, come on."-Brandon.

"Well I would just be a regular Pokémon trainer and go on an adventure with my Pokémon and human companions, experience all the fun activities bond together, make new friends, help other people and Pokémon along the way, etc etc."-me.

"Well aren't you a goody goody saint."-Brandon mocks.

"Hey just beating up everyone doesn't sound good and neither does being cooped up in a lab somewhere all by yourself with hardly any company, either way Pokémon or no Pokémon you'd start to get lonely."- I defend myself.

Brandon looks like he has something to add but is stopped by an elbow nudge from Ken and as we reach the Pokémon booth I keep wondering why Damos keeps giving me a weird look, is there something on my face?

Once we arrive, my friends and I can't help but drool for the new 3DS consoles and latest games that have mega evolutions. Wuuu... why are there so many posters of megas around, you guys are just mocking a poor kid who only has a beat-up GBA.

"*Sigh* how a Pokémon can mega evolve with just a key stone and mega stone without a strong bond between trainer and Pokémon is beyond me, well I suppose that's another thing they can't replicate in the game."-Damos says as we look around.

Eventually we separate from Damos as he says he wants to participate in the costume contest, so we split up while encouraging Damos that his costume is really good and promising that we'll even vote for him later on.

We wander around the convention checking the various booths and even buy a few souvenirs (not me though). When it was time for the costume contest we gather near the stage to watch. Seeing all the contestants, I was wondering how Damos didn't seem to have the confidence to win, he clearly had the best costume of the lot (the most expensive one as well no doubt), he could win even if we didn't vote for him but still since we were kind of friends and we did promise, we cast our votes in his favour. Not so surprisingly he won and got a $200 coupon (damn the rich just keep getting richer). There were a few more events such as live interviews with some celebrities (none of the really famous ones but still), quiz competitions and some other games. It was early in the evening when we left, still giddy with excitement over the day's events.

Just as we turned around the bend exiting the square, we hear a noise from the side alley up ahead. We proceed towards it as quietly as we can to check what's going on only to find Billy, Keith and their gang have cornered Damos and are threatening him for his cash. We could hear one of their gang say "Don't try to deny it old man I know you're rich so there's no use pretending so just hand it over and we may consider sparing you for ratting us out back at the convention."

Damn, this is not looking good; right now we are crouched behind a dumpster watching the scene unfold. There's not many people around out and about especially here behind the old abandoned theatre house and let's face it even if someone from town comes across this scene they'd ignore it, I speak from experience. We need to think of a way to help Damos, we exchange glances with each other hoping the other would come up with a better idea than "Let's call the Sheriff." Fat lot of good he'd do. As we're still discussing Billy pulls out a knife and approaches Damos-

"I don't think you understand old man, nobody I mean no one messes with me in my town. Now cough up everything you got or there'll be more than a Pikachu rug on my floor if you catch my drift."-Billy starts to threaten Damos. Keith soon joins him with a knife of his own while laughing sinisterly.

Great just what a pack of deranged psychos need - knifes, these guys have upped their game. The situation is getting out of hand with no solution in sight. Brandon whisper's about trying to get help from people at the convention, it sounds like a good idea but there's not enough time Damos could be in danger any second now. We finally decide to let Brandon go get reinforcements while Ken and I distract Billy and his gang and buy as much time as we possibly can. As Brandon slips away I call out for Damos while changing my voice to sound deeper hoping against hope it works-

"Damos are you here, we need to leave soon or we'll miss the train."- I give my best shot trying to sound older and macho.

Billy and co. seem to freeze, let's just hope my crazy plan works out, but it wasn't meant to be I guess as a voice behind us shouts-"What are you two doing here?". Of all the rotten luck, its a couple of Billy's goons, they must have been on the lookout a little distance off and come to check up on the situation. Our cover is soon blown and we're soon surrounded as well.

"Well well well if it ain't little Johnny and Kenny. What brings ya'll to this dirty little alley on a fine evenin such as this? Surely yous can't be out for a walk."-Keith mocks us.

"*Snicker* And here I was worrying about how difficult it would be to find you after you crawl under some rock, never thought you would just deliver yourself to us Johnny, looks like you've forgotten what our last meeting was like."-Billy targets me in particular.

"How about we teach these goody goodies a lesson they won't forget any time soon, boss."- Random lackey.

"All in good time. Now you old geezer let me give you a demonstration of what happens when you mess with us."-Billy, as he motions for his gang to close in on us.

"You guys won't get away with it, Brandon's already gone looking for help so you better let us go or else."-Ken panics.

"*tch* was wonderin why there was only two of yous all by your lonesome."-Keith.

"Enough, looks like we're in a rush boys. Alright old man my patience is wearing thin, hand over everything you got or I'll gut you here and now."-Billy.

'Things are going downhill real fast almost free falling out of control. Since I'll have to take a beating either way might as well give them hell and see if I can at least cover Ken and Damos.' I decide as I lunge toward Keith who is nearest to me and I try to disarm his knife.

"What are you morons standing there looking around for? Get him!"-Billy yells.

But before anyone has a chance to approach and yank me off Keith, I shove/tackle him into Billy. The three of us loose our balance and trip; I wrestle Billy and Keith on the ground while getting a few shots in as they are still disorientated. My struggle is short lived though as they soon come around and start to fight back, I soon feel a sharp pain from my abdomen and the side of my ribs. I struggle to roll away, each roll causing excruciating pain and making me see stars in front of my eyes. Billy and Keith soon get back on their feet and they look like they spent a rough night on the streets which would've made me feel great if not for my own dire circumstances. I soon realise the reason for the terrible pain as I see the blood stained knives in the hands of Billy and Keith, damn those wastrels they actually stabbed me. I can barely get into a seated position as I'm losing strength in my limbs and I can feel the warm sticky blood drenching my shirt.

Everyone froze even Billy and Keith, of course they might have done a lot of bad things and beat up loads of guys but this was really serious. Some of the weaker willed of Billy's gang straight up turn tail and flee. After spacing out for a few seconds-

"We need to run now."-Keith shakes Billy and starts dragging him away, soon they and the rest of their gang rush out of the alley fast.

Ken and Damos rush to my side to support me up; Ken is downright panicking and half cursing half praying under his breath.

"I'm so sorry I should have helped I'm such a fool"-Ken extremely panicked.

"..Not your fault.."- I manage to wheeze out.

"We need to get him to a hospital, a clinic, a doctor anything."-Ken bordering hysteria.

"Calm down, we can't move him in this condition. I'll stay here, hurry and go get help. There might be something for first aid at convention that can help control the bleeding."-Damos instructs as he starts ripping up his costume and pulling out the stuffing to press against my wounds. Ken rushes away following Damos's instructions.

I nearly pass out from the pain when Damos applies pressure to my wounds to staunch the bleeding. "It seems like I was wrong about you, you're braver than you look. Its alright you'll be fine don't lose focus."-Damos encourages but we both know I won't make it, I've lost too much blood, I can't talk anymore and my vision's starting to get blurry and faded.

Damos pulls out a funny looking necklace pendant from under his costume, it sort of looks like a gold wheel with green spots on it, either way I can't tell clearly because of my vision is going funny especially since it looks like its starting to glow. 'Is this it am I going to die here like this, damn I have so many regrets. Why couldn't I come up with a better plan, understand the situation better if not I wouldn't be in this mess...' _Acknowledged, acquiring unique skill_ _ **[Insight]**_ _... acquired_ 'Holy.. what was that? Is Damos playing some kind of recording, not funny man - not funny.*tch* its colder, my vision is fading fast and I seem to be hearing a weird buzzing in my ears. I guess this is it.' Soon my vision goes completely dark and my pain vanishes, I can't feel anything anymore the floor, my body, the air nothing, nada.

After a few moments or what felt like a few moments, as I was wondering where the light that everyone talks about was, I felt pain coming from my head-'Hey I have a head.'- was my first thought. I still couldn't breathe and to make matters worse it felt like someone was trying to rip my head off. Eventually it felt like I was pulled out of the darkness by my head only to find that my mouth and nose seemed to be chocked up with some sort of liquid. I started to cough, wriggle and finally started bawling loudly in a voice that I barely recognized as my own. 'Wait, why am I crying like a baby I mean actually like a baby?' I open my eyes, everything appears blurry at first then slowly things come into focus-'Yaaa help I'm being held by a giant'- not good I try to escape but all my body seems capable of is to wiggle some more. As I look around some more I discover that everyone around me is a giant, no wait its just me who is small but why. When a lady in a nurse's get up comes around with a warm towel to wipe me clean my view is changed and I also chance upon another lady on a hospital bed who seems utterly exhausted. '...wait ... no ..oh nonono... gaaaa.' It suddenly hits me, I have reincarnated as a baby somewhere else after being stabbed to death. ' Why ..how ..what?' All sorts of questions seem to be popping around my head with no signs of finding an answer to these bizarre happenings.

Meanwhile the nurse; after cleaning me up and wrapping me in a fresh blanket takes me out of what must be the delivery room to a man eagerly waiting in the corridor who I guess is my father in this life. He is extremely tan and buff like he works at a forge or something. He becomes extremely excited to see me and rushes over almost scaring the nurse, he's surprisingly gentle while holding me when the nurse hands me over to him. Well that's my first impression but boy was I wrong, within a few seconds of being in his arms he gets carried away rocking me with more force than necessary and much to the horror of the nurse playing upsi-daisy with me. 'Uurgh... I think I'm gonna hurl.. burg... stop... please...uuu.' He finally brings himself under control after being told off by the nurse who threatens to take me away.

I look out the window to calm myself while "my father" is being lectured. Suddenly I spot a strange looking bird outside the window, I mean it didn't look like any crow, sparrow or pigeon I've seen before, it was small, brown and oddly familiar looking but I just couldn't put my finger on it from the short glimpse as it flit past the window. Anyways there appears to be a forest not far from the hospital with really big trees some almost the size of giant redwood trees in the distance. As my gaze is still locked outside the window wondering where I am, I spot another creature that completely takes my breath away- a big butterfly with white wings having black line patterns, rounded purplish body, strange long blue legs, small hand like things and big reddish pink eyes...-

...

...

'What the... no matter how I look at that thing slowly fluttering outside the window it looks like a Butterfree... but how... I..I mean that's a Pokémon a real life living and breathing Pokémon. Could I be in the world of Pokémon.'-I start shivering with excitement, I can feel a warm current flowing from my very being... 'Wait a moment something really does feel warm.' My father apparently feels it too, and that's when I notice-'Why do babies have such poor bladder control?'


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter-1**

Well that was extremely embarrassing, wetting myself like that but like I said before babies have horrible bladder control, no, on second thought control of any sort goes out the window when you're a baby. Anyways I've come a long way since then, it is now a week after I was born in this world well I'm not potty trained or anything but I have my ways.

Enough of that, my new name in this world is Sage Peirce, male (one of the first things I checked- gender swap on rebirth is no joke), son of Mason Peirce the wood cutter/ charcoal maker of Azalea Town and (you'll get a kick out of this one) Professor Philena Ivy (how my idiot Dad managed to get together with my genius Mom is a mystery to me, on a side note; why Brock collapses at the very mention of the name of "Philena Ivy" is no longer a mystery). Frankly I am more excited by that fact that I have such loving parents than my being in the world of Pokémon, granted that Dad can sometimes act like a real doof and Mom can get easily distracted with her work occasionally but its never to the point of endangering or completely ignoring me.

As I said before I can somewhat communicate with my parents and let them know what exactly I want by crying in different tones, for example "Whaaaa..!" is for hunger, "huh...huh..*sniff*" is for when I need to go number 1, "Uwaa...uwaaa.." is for number 2 and so on and so forth, it also served as good exercise for my vocal chords as well. Mom being as smart as she was figured it out in just a couple of days, Dad on the other hand... he was just amazed by the different kinds of sounds babies made(really makes me question how he tied the knot with someone like Mom... hope he teaches me the secret later on). Well that's one side of the communication channel that's been made clear, so now you might all be wondering how I can understand my parents and everything else in this foreign world when it is so very different compared to my previous one, the credit for all that should go to my _Innate Unique Skill_ _ **[Insight]**_.

I was quite surprised to find out that in addition to the existence of Pokémon in this world there were many other phenomena that I can only classify as "Game elements". My _Innate Unique Skill_ _ **[Insight]**_ is but one such example, just like Pokémon abilities people seem to be born with their own _Innate Skills_ that grant various abilities and/or effects to their owner. My skill _**[Insight]**_ for example has the following effects-

Higher cognitive capacity-meaning I can understand and learn new things faster.

Improved reflexes and better co-ordination (higher dexterity).

 _Prying eye_ (this one feels really broken even to me)-sort of like an appraisal ability that lets me know the data of any item as well People and Pokémon including things like their _Stats_ , _Abilities_ ( _Move sets_ ) and _Skills_.

A person's skill while giving them various benefits also seem to have other unique effects that activate when the person battles with his/her Pokémon, again taking my skill as an example its effects during a Pokémon battle are-

15% increase to _Accuracy/Success of move_ , _Evasion_ and _Critical hit rate_.

10% improved resistance to attacks that affect Pokémon's psyche (moves like Hypnosis, Attract, confusion causing moves, etc. have a slightly lower chance of taking effect and the effects also wear off quickly if already affected).

This is really exciting, when I can move about by myself I must look into these matters more, in fact I just can't wait to see what other amazing things are in store for me. But for now I need to learn as much as possible just from my parent's conversation, just the other day I learnt a bit more about a human's innate skill. Dad was wondering aloud what my innate skill would be while also hoping that it would be a unique skill like my Mom's, it turns out that innate skills are classified as ordinary or unique with the latter only having only a 1 in 1000 chance of manifesting and it sort of seems hereditary i.e. skills are either inherited from a single parent or becomes a combination of both parent's skill, then again there are always exceptions and little is known about this field. Also a person's innate skill is a sort of really personal secret, one wouldn't easily share their skill info with another so without the other party honestly telling you about their skill others wouldn't know, only when there is a significant amount of trust between two individuals would they confide in each other about their respective skills. This was the main reason why I felt that my skill was really broken because I could easily find out the skills of others and their effects with the help of _Prying Eye_. I could easily make out my parent's innate skill- My Dad's skill was an ordinary class one called _**[Stoic]**_

Grants him great strength and endurance

Improved reflexes

Effect in Pokémon battle

5% increase to strength, defence and endurance of Pokémon

Granting 50% immunity to stat reductions during the course of battle.

My Mom's skill was a unique skill called _**[Analyst]**_

Grants high cognitive capacity

Higher agility

A unique ability called _Empathy_ __ _link_ which promotes friendship/relations between people and Pokémon by understanding their emotional states

Effect in Pokémon battle

10% increase to accuracy and evasion

If Pokémon and Trainer have a significantly strong bond there is a 10% chance of your Pokémon being able to read the opponent's next move and counter with a K.O. attack (I know so OP).

From what I see unique skills are truly amazing or should I say broken, they are definitely better than ordinary skills no wonder Dad hoped I inherited a unique skill from Mom. Well I definitely have a unique skill so it seem Dad's prayers were answered but I just don't know how I am going to explain it to them, especially the ability _Prying eye_. I've got to find a way to tell them about it without alarming them.

Well enough explanations about skills for now (I'm also not going into detail about my other day to day experiences as a baby, its way too embarrassing so don't ask). For the most part I observe my surroundings and let my skill do its thing absorbing any and all information as I possibly could; I especially found the glances at Mom's research papers on Pokémon biology, diversity and distribution very insightful. I also observed my Dad do the chores around the house to learn the basics at least, I was also no stranger to chores myself as we were given quite a few back at St. Michael's, I know what you might be thinking I thought the same way too before but I slowly came to realize that doing chores also has its plus points (I don't know about other guys but I feel that a man should have some ability in domestic affairs- it builds character, teaches you discipline and survivability and most important of all increases your chances with the ladies or so I've heard).

So that's how the days of my infanthood passed in my new life in the world of Pokémon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter-2**

You might all be wondering about the stunning lack of Pokémon previously, believe me when I say that I was more eager to see them than you guys but apparently my parents were under the opinion that it would not be appropriate for a newborn baby and their Pokémon to interact so soon and so suddenly, their idea was to let us slowly get used to each other's presence so that nothing dangerous happens like them scaring me or they might find me as a sudden stranger in their lives. So although I could see Dad's two Farfetche'd working to make charcoal in the yard out back as well as Mom's Poliwhirl and Cloyster occasionally I never saw them up close and personal.

It was a full month after I was born that I was allowed to interact with the Pokémon around the house and boy was it fun. Even the Pokémon were very excited to get to know me better, so on our first meeting they showed off some of their moves- Poliwhirl sprayed some bubbles in my direction, Cloyster made a beautiful light display with Aurora beam and the two Farfetch'd flew in formation then landed and started twirling their sticks like batons. It looks like they practised a lot for my sake so I made sure to wave my hands excitedly and laugh showing them that I really thought they were amazing, well they truly were awesome. Just when I thought I had seen it all, Mom decided to pull out all the stops seeing that my reaction to Pokémon was really good by releasing her Gyarados which let out a fierce roar on appearing. I was just gaping there for a moment in Dad's arms completely stunned before I started wriggling and making sounds like "Kya Kya wa uuuu bubu..." with more enthusiasm, all the Pokémon were simply amazing I even reached out to pat Gyarados when he leaned forward to have a better look at me, he surprisingly liked being patted by me as he closed his eyes and made low satisfied roars " Gyaa.. Gyaa..", Mom and Dad were shocked to see me interacting so well with the Pokémon and they sighed thinking that all their worries were unfounded.

Thus my interactions with Pokémon grew increasingly over time and I began to understand them better as I observed them, one of the very first things that surprised me that a Pokémon could learn a total of 6 that's right not 4 but 6 moves at a time, the concept of PP did not exist hell even the concept of levels didn't, then you might be wondering how one would determine their growth, well here a Pokémon would grow stronger the good old fashion way by honing their skills-moves under the guidance of their trainer. The worth of a Pokémon wasn't solely determined by numerical stats but by their connections with their trainers and how much a trainer could bring out in a Pokémon. I found out about this when I saw a mock battle between Mom and Dad, although Dad's Farfetch'd seemed weak the time he spent training with them in Ilex forest cutting down trees was way more than the time Mom spent with her Pokémon as she spent a lot of time on her research. So basically Mom didn't have a chance unless she used her Gyarados (it still was a narrow loss for Dad and he was fighting all three of Mom's Pokémon with just two of his), even her Cloyster which obviously had a type advantage was no match for Dad partnered with one of his Farfetch'd. If you personally saw the battle you might not think I'm being too farfetched (forgive the pun) but the way Dad battled was awesome, the Farfetche'd were like samurais wielding their katana, the power was simply amazing nowhere near like as shown in the game its damage could not be explained by just some numbers or damage value.

I began to grow really eager for my chance to battle, I was squealing and wiggling with excitement nonstop as I watched my parents having a Pokémon battle. I just can't wait for me to get my own Pokémon but first I needed to master my motor skills, I was going nowhere as I was now *sigh*. I really wish time would move faster, have you ever been stuck in a boring lecture and just couldn't wait for the end of class, well imagine that and change one hour of lecture to 10 insanity inducing months of being a prisoner in my own baby body. I started crying for joy so hard when I was able to crawl just a little that my parents were beside themselves with worry wondering what happened to me.

As I mentioned before I can now crawl which means my world just got a whole lot bigger (finally *sob* after so much suffering*sniff*), I now need to work on my stealth. For the most part I actively pull out all the books, news papers and magazines I can reach to read and fill up on information to sate my curiosity, I especially go for Mom's research material. When no one's looking I even try to sneak out of the house to take a look outside, hey I've been outside a few times before with my parents-we've gone on a couple of picnics and even attended the Slowpoke Festival before not to mention the many times they took me out for a stroll for fresh air and some sun-I know its dangerous outside and I'm being a really ungrateful brat to my parents but I just can't stand house arrest any more. Sure I get caught most of the time and Mom becomes especially upset which makes me feel very guilty and keeps me from trying that again anytime soon, but when I do manage to leave the house I never wander very far (not more than 20 feet from home) so as not to worry Mom and I always return soon before I get noticed. My speech still needs work, withal the slurring and lisping of words makes me wish that my skill had an auto correct feature.

Time passes slowly, dreadfully slowly like Slowpoke in slow motion (gaaah... its driving me insane). I am now 3 years old and can now run around on my two feet quite well (and without any running shoes to boot, well what do you know), so after much pleading and begging to my parents (especially Mom) I'm now allowed to occasionally go out for a walk around the neighbourhood provided one of their Pokémon accompanies me as a chaperone. As I go around the neighbourhood this fine sunny morning I converse politely with all the people I come across-I greet Grandpa George who owns an orchard that grows some fruit and produces some sweet syrup, Mrs. Mathews who runs a small inn and cafe with her husband and big sister Clair who works at the local Poke mart-I've become a friends with a lot of people (hey when you're a toddler you've got to make the most of your charm). I also gaze longingly at some of the wild and caught Pokémon I come across wishing I could have one of my own, "Poli?..Poliwhirl." Poliwhirl enquires after me seeing my strange expression and I hurriedly recover saying "I'm alright Tess, its nothing." as I shake my arms "Poliwhirl" Tess doesn't seem to believe me. Well getting a Pokémon for myself will have to wait but for now I just make do by playing with my parent's Pokémon, I've even given them all names and they seem to like it oddly enough, what surprised me most is how easily I am able to interact with Pokémon, not to brag or anything but usually any Pokémon wild or even trained will keep a certain amount of distance from strangers even their trainer's closest friends and family at first but I seem to be able to get close to even wild Pokémon without alarming them let alone becoming best buds with my parent's Pokémon from the get go. As I mentioned before I even gave them names (after informing my parents of course, they were their Pokémon after all) I call the male Farfetche'd Charlie, the female one Charlotte, Cloyster as Jack, Gyarados as Chester and Poliwhirl as Tess. At one point my parents even believed that it had something to do with my innate skill like Mom's that helped strengthen relations but when I did tell them about my skill, although they were extremely shocked and excited, they just attributed my good relations with Pokémon as the result of my sincerity.

As we were walking we soon arrived near the out skirts of town, the only family which lived in this part of town were the Campbell's, its a family of four people but perhaps you would understand better if I say it was Kurt's family. When I get close to the house I see a small young girl about my age struggling to carry a basket full of what appears to be _apricorns._ "Hey, need any help there?" I ask politely as I get closer. "*Humph* I don't need **your** help so go away." She replies, this is Heart Campbell by the way, daughter of Davis and Sarah Campbell, granddaughter of Kurt Campbell. She looks so cute with her small face flushed from the effort to carry the basket in her small hands that I can't help myself as I move forward to hold one end of the basket up to help (*ahem* I am not a paedophile, I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart...really I am), "Go away I didn't ask for help." She says again fiercely just as her mother arrives through the door "What's all that noise Heart, that's not how a young lady should behave." Sarah admonishes, "Good morning Mrs. Campbell." I greet her trying to get her attention away from scolding Heart. "Oh good morning Sage, out for a morning walk I see." She replies. Well my relation with the Campbell family can only be described as strange, you see my Mom, Professor Ivy and Kurt Campbell have a sort of rivalry going on between them and it gets really tense sometimes when they run into each other but on the other hand my Dad and Heart's parents are childhood friends so yeah things get really weird when I interact with the Campbell family. Given the closeness of Heart's relationship with her grandfather her view of me is not favourable to say the least but I still try to maintain good relations with her and her family regardless.

"Now Heart, say thank you to Sage for helping you out." -Her mom tells her.

" Nnnn.." she sticks her tongue out at me and runs into the house, "Heart.." her mom calls after her, she then sighs and says to me "Oh don't mind her dear she spends way too much time with her grandfather and you know old people they specialize in carrying grudges especially this one."

"I heard that, and I do not hold any grudges I just don't like **that** woman's attitude. What are you doing here you brat, you hitting on my sweet little granddaughter *humph* over my dead body." Kurt rants as he comes out the door followed by Heart who's hiding behind his legs.

" _Father_.." Sarah starts off but I decide to run off not wanting to get caught up in this drama by saying "I better get going Mrs. Campbell my parents are probably waiting for me."

"But Sage... *sigh*" she soon relents. I soon take my leave as Sarah bids me farewell and Kurt and Heart throw one more glance my way before returning to the house.

I soon make my way back home while wondering if there was any way to fix my relationship with the Campbell's and also get Mom and Kurt to reconcile. There'd be lots of benefits to being on good terms with Kurt but honestly I also really support my Mom.

When I reach home and step through the front door I hear my parents discussing something, when I reach the dining room I see Mom holding an opened letter as she talks to Dad in a sort of strained voice. I get really worried and ask "Mom, Dad what's the matter?"

"Sage honey, come here." Mom calls for me and pulls me into a tight embrace.

I get really worried and ask "Is everything okay, did something bad happen, no one's hurt right."

"No no its just that your Mom got a letter from back at her lab in the Orange Islands requesting her to come back, they really need her help over there but she seems like she doesn't want to leave us just yet is all."Dad explains.

Mom is nearly at the edge of breaking into tears at this point, I try my best to console her "Its okay Mom, I understand, Mom is really important and the work she does is amazing so.. so you shouldn't worry too much *sniff*... go and come back really soon *hic* I'll call every day." I can barely keep it together myself, I knew that this day would come eventually and Mom would have to go away on work again but that didn't make it any easier to say good bye.

Mom couldn't take it and hugs me tightly while sobbing "Really you don't mind,*sniff* Sage honey I'll miss you so much, its so far away. Promise me you'll call me every day, both of you." Dad joins in as well and we embrace in a tight family hug for sometime (this is so nice, its awesome to have a family). We then help Mom pack for her trip as she'll be leaving the next day.

At the air port we have another teary farewell as Mom promises to come by for a visit gain in three months and reminds us to call her every day. *sigh* Looks like it'll be just Dad and me for a while, but I look at it positively as an opportunity for some Father-Son bonding time. To keep me from getting bored, to go out and explore more and to spend more time with Dad I brainwash him... *ahem* convince him to let me accompany him into Ilex Forest when he goes to collect wood every day. 


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Sorry for the delay, busy with work updates might be slow. For anyone who is confused- Charlie= male Farfetche'd Charlotte=female Farfetche'd Tess=female Poliwhirl Jack=male Cloyster Chester= Gyarados

 **Chapter-3**

The days are passing more quickly now as I accompany Dad on his trips into the Ilex forest to cut wood, although I was really against cutting trees, my worries seemed to be unfounded on the second day of cutting wood. Remember how I told you that there were some phenomena that can only be described as game elements well this seemed to be one of them, apparently an experienced wood cutter could pick the most appropriate tree which within a day would grow back, I mean literally you cut it today and tomorrow you would find the tree still standing as before. When I asked Dad about it he said that certain trees at certain times accumulate energy and can completely re-grow in a day, but if he were to cut the same tree again the next day it wouldn't grow back for many years unless other external factors influence it. He also said that it was a wood cutter's job to identify the right tree to cut and be responsible when dealing with nature. I was thoroughly intrigued by the workings of this world and made a mental note not to underestimate it, there was always something more to learn.

After a few days of visits to the forest I really began to appreciate the _dexterity boost_ my skill granted me otherwise I would just be a hindrance to Dad. I also took this as an opportunity to train myself, I didn't want to be just a regular average Pokémon Trainer, from my previous life I found out that regardless of anything else staying fit and healthy was always a plus (I could run away from bullies more easily and also fight well if push comes to shove). I'd also frequently chase the wild Weedles, Caterpies, Butterfrees, Beedrills, Paras, Oddish and other Pokémon I might come across and observe them, I was always cautious though and my skill _**[Insight]**_ helped me observe if anything I did aggravates them and let me approach them without alarming them. I would also find some _items_ and _herbs_ occasionally that I could turn in for some money, since I wanted to be a Pokémon Trainer it was best to start saving early. Earning money as a Trainer or related profession was fairly different from in the game back in my old world- for one you don't get money from Pokémon battles unless it is prior agreed upon or it is a competition with a cash prize, defeating wild Pokémon in the wild has a 5% chance to drop some petty cash and/or _items_ (wild Pokémon that faint burst into pixels and respawn elsewhere, they are not being murdered) and lastly one can earn cash by taking up and completing _Quests_ from the Pokémon Centre or other such venues.

I learnt all this from my visit to the Pokémon Centre, Nurse Joy was very friendly and explained all sorts of basic information I might need and also gave me a tour of some of the facilities of the Pokémon Centre. Other than the obvious treatment facility they also provide lodging and catering for travelling Trainers, they have a well stocked library(my personal favourite), a counter designated to accept _Quests_ , receive rewards, get information on various events around locality, sign up for certain events as well as submit requests for help that is latter set up as a _Quest._ I became a frequent visitor to the library to gather general information such as the topography of the region, locations of interest, general information of Pokémon in the region, etc. I also did an in-depth study Pokémon care and grooming, study of herbs and other medicines. So with all that I had learnt and by slowly giving Nurse Joy a good impression of myself I was able to earn some cash by gathering _herbs_ and other natural _medicines_ from my trip to the forest and even get a shot at complete a few basic level _Quests_.

With all that I had learnt, I decided to see how it would help me in actual practise and the wild Pokémon and Dad's Pokémon became the perfect test subjects. Whenever we came across an injured wild Pokémon in the wild or Charlie and Charlotte got hurt I would perform first aid, I was sloppy and clumsy at first but now I am well versed in basic treatments even if they suffered some _status_ related problems such as _burn, poison,_ etc. I could identify and gather the right _herbs_ and _berries_ for treatment. Eventually on some days wild Pokémon would show up and join us for lunch and would even spend some time playing with me, I have now become friends with a lot of the Pokémon in the forest even the very aggressive and territorial Beedrill swarms have become my friends (mostly had something to do with the _syrup_ coated _berries_ I often bribed them with). Whenever some wild Pokémon is injured its friends even go out of their way to find me sometimes so that I might be able to help them, this shows the extent to which we have grown close. My Dad seems to be very astonished by all this, he told me one day during lunch that he was originally worried for me being in the forest as there are a lot of dangers, but seeing as how I now seemed to be able to progress much deeper into the woods safely than even he ever could that too without any Pokémon of my own he was simply amazed.

Time seemed to fly by, soon Mom returned for a visit and we had a small welcome home party for her at home. It was all nice and fun until Dad opened up about taking me to the forest with him, that's it Mom went ballistic after that-

"How could you? Do you know how dangerous it is in the Ilex forest? Getting lost in that huge place is the least of the dangers." Mom wouldn't listen to anything and was just scolding us saying how upset she was. I felt really bad for making worry so much, but Dad took it upon himself to explain when Mom stopped to catch her breath.

"Dear, I can understand your anxiety but I am trying to tell you that our son has nothing to fear in the forest not with so many of his friends there watching over him."-Dad tries to get his point across.

"What do you mean? Explain, quickly."-Mom commanded.

"Well our son has become friends with countless wild Pokémon in the forest, his safety is absolutely guaranteed, in fact I wouldn't be exaggerating when I say the forest has sort of become a second home for him. The wild Pokémon seem to treat him as one of their own."-Dad, eager to explain himself.

"That's impossible."-Mom didn't believe us until we convinced her to accompany us to the forest the next day; she was still against me going there which was understandable as a walk through Ilex Forest and a walk around the neighbourhood were two entirely different concepts.

As we were walking through the forest the next day Mom led the way proceeding slowly while constantly scanning the surroundings, she had Tess and Jack guard my flanks like bodyguards. Dad was walking off by the side shaking his head at the arrangement, he thought it was all unnecessary and I inwardly agreed with him. Even Dad's Pokémon- Charlie and Charlotte were very relaxed, it was not like before where they had to keep constant guard, lately due my growing interactions with the wild Pokémon we were seldom attacked as they considered us friends.

Looking around I saw some of my friends off in the distance keeping watch from afar, they were probably wary of Mom and her Pokémon as they had never seen them before. Wild Pokémon were quite cautious themselves so it was understandable that they didn't approach or so I thought until a Beedrill flew up to us in a hurry, Mom was starting to panic and just about to order her Pokémon to attack but I stopped her-

"Mom, stop don't attack, I know that Pokémon she's my friend."-I tell her, after spending so much time with them and thanks to my innate skill I was able to recognize the various Pokémon easily and could even differentiate genders.

"Nonsense, get back Beedrill are pack/hive type Pokémon if there's one here the others are not far off."- She said as she tried to push me back but I wouldn't have it as the Beedrill looked extremely panicked itself, it approached and hovered in front of me, circled me a couple of times and quickly flew off back where it came from in a big rush. Looks like something happened and it wants me to follow it, I rush to follow telling my parents to follow while not making any sudden moves in order to not cause the wild Pokémon to panic and attack us. Mom still looked worried as always and still wanted to take me out of the forest fast, but seeing me head deeper in and Dad following behind soon after she had no choice but to relent and follow as well.

We soon arrived in the territory occupied by the Beedrill, we could see many of them flying about while Kakuna hung from trees and the Weedle were crawling around the place. I slowed down for my parents to catch up before heading in the direction the Beedrill from before flew off. Judging from the look on Mom's face she looked like she could empty 10 cans of _Max Repel_ , have Tess use _Hypnosis_ on me and haul us all out of the forest any moment now, but thankfully she held in her impulses. As we proceeded further in slowly we came across a small crowd of Pokémon surrounding a Weedle that was lying on the forest floor, it looked weak and like it had difficulty in moving. I went forward to have a closer look but Mom got a firm hold of the back of my shirt and didn't want to let me go-

"Sage don't you even think about moving another step forward."-She said.

"Its OK Mom they won't hurt me, besides that Weedle looks ill I have to help."-I said as I gently pat her arms and slowly move forward.

As I draw close to the injured Pokémon the others make way for me while making anxious sounds that I take to mean as requests for help. I approach Weedle and bend down to examine it, its entire body is stiff and there is a yellowish tinge around it-its paralysed. Well a _Cheri berry_ would make it feel better but I also know that Bug types don't like the spicy taste of that berry so I turn back to Dad and ask for the bag, I take out the pestle and mortar along with a C _heri berry, an Oran berry_ and some _Syrup_. I grind everything into a paste and pour it into a dripper and return to Weedle, I slowly raise its head and feed it the medicine, the taste seems to be to its liking as it soon finishes the entire prepared portion. I then start to slowly massage the Pokémon in the way Nurse Joy taught me to, she said that massaging Paralysed Pokémon helps their muscles relax and the medicine to spread faster she also said that Pokémon in general like to be massaged. It seems to be working as the yellowish glow soon fades away and Weedle starts to move more energetically, it gets up and rubs its head to my arm as the other Pokémon start making sounds of relief and happiness, I pet and rub Weedle's head a little before getting up and slowly making my way back to my parents. Dad seems okay as he's used to scenes like this but Mom is downright shocked and her mouth is hanging open a little.

"How.. h..how did you do that?"-Mom

"I learnt it from Nurse Joy, she taught me some first aid procedures and also a little about raising Pokémon."-I reply.

"Now do you believe that our son is not in any danger here, things like this happen often and even if they didn't who could ever be mean and hurt my dear Sage *humph* even the most ferocious Pokémon would become meek in front of his cute charm."-Dad starts trailing off topic while doting on me *sigh*.

As the day progresses Mom observes how I easily get along with various Pokémon and her worries soon reduce-not gone, just reduced. On our way back home she questions me intensely on all my experiences and where I learnt all the things that I seem to know, but are way beyond what any normal 4 year old should know. I was worried about how I would explain this to them I couldn't tell them that I was actually reincarnated from a 17 year old teen of another world now could I but my innate skill gave me a convenient scapegoat. I told them I learnt to read thanks to my skill (which is part true as I wouldn't be able to learn this world's new language so soon without it) and that I spent a lot of time going through the books in the Pokémon Centre library. They were shocked at first but it soon subsided as they knew of my innate skill and its abilities so they could accept what I said when taking that into consideration.

That night at the dinner table Mom decided to bring up a new topic, she suggested that I enrol into school early as I seemed eager to learn. Although she said that I seem to feel that it was a ploy of hers to keep me away from the forest, must be her reasoning that I was so bored that I decided to adventure in the forest (which was again true). I wasn't particularly against attending preschool as I really wanted to know more about the education system in this world; my only regret was that I would not be able to spend as much time in the forest as before. Thus I was to enrol in Azalea Town Preschool starting next week Monday. 

Time was really flying by now, it was soon the day for me to attend school and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling the tension that accompanies any kid on his first day of school at a new place. Anyway the school was housed in a big building near the centre of town, it was really colourful but still didn't look gaudy and the campus was well maintained and clean. Many kids stopped playing to turn and look at me, the new kid, as I accompanied Mom and Dad across the playground to the office to finish off the formalities and have me officially enrolled. After everything was set and my parents were about to leave Mom knelt down to meet my, gave me a hug and a kiss to my forehead then said "All the very best Sage dear, do your best, have fun and make lots of friends. Remember to tell Mommy all about your day later; I'll come to pick you up in the afternoon. *sniff* my son already a school boy..." Mom was tearing up towards the end of it. Dad on the other hand; *pang* a pat landed on my back so hard that I nearly fell over "Bwahahaha... our son is a genius, there's absolutely no need to worry." He said but I could still make out the slight trembling in his voice, apparently he was having mixed feelings too. Eventually they were escorted out by one of the attendants saying that class would start soon and they could come pick me up later.

Another attendant led me towards my first class just as the bell rang. When I arrived at my class and gave my introduction it was just as expected, everyone was looking at me as if I were a rare Pokémon on display; one gaze was especially fierce, that of a young girl I recognized-Heart Campbell. Things were going to get interesting now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter-4**

I don't know what I was expecting out of preschool but it was quite boring, I already knew way more than any other students here. The only good thing about it was that I got to make more friends (Aside from Heart and her gang), there was also time designated to interact with Pokémon-the teachers would bring some _Normal type_ Pokémon like Rattata, Sentret, Clefariy and Meowoth for us to play with every now and then, it goes without saying that everyone was immensely excited about the Pokémon and many wanted to be Pokémon masters when they grew up. Since I had more experience dealing with Pokémon before and the vast knowledge learnt from the library I didn't face even the slightest bit of difficulty in interacting with the Pokémon much to the envious gazes of the other kids. All said and done I wasn't learning as much as I hoped to so Mom even started to home school me herself a little when she was free and also arranged for me to have a few books to read when she had to return to her lab.

So the days passed, I had school till about noon and I would later head to the forest in the afternoon with packed lunch for Dad and me. Training in the forest brought its own benefits, I was extremely fit for my age not overtly bulky but still strong and I could easily keep up with some Pokémon in the forest dashing about like a ninja, I would often race with some _Flying type_ Pokémon and though I couldn't win just yet I didn't lose by too wide a gap. The most exciting development was when one day after lunch Dad said "Ahaaa... I can't take the waiting anymore, my son is grown up now and I want to have my first Pokémon battle with my boy already. Sonny lets go out, Dad will show you how you battle, show me what you're made of." That was music to my ears, so we found a wide clearing for our battle and Dad lent Charlotte to me, she seemed quite excited and so was Charlie. Like I said before this world has game elements to it so Dad soon sent a Battle request notification to me and I accepted, it was to be a one on one battle with both trainers using one Pokémon each. Seeing the atmosphere some of my wild Pokémon friends gathered around to watch us battle. For anyone else being asked to battle with someone else's Pokémon so suddenly would have stumped them but I didn't feel so and neither did Charlotte, given the time I had spent with my parent's Pokémon our bonds were considerable and I could issue orders to them without them rejecting them and I knew all their move sets and their preferences so I had no problems with this battle.

Dad and Charlie came at us with their signature move _Cut._

"Charlotte, dodge and use _Aerial Ace._ " _-_ Me. Thanks to the boost from my skill we were able to easily evade and counter attack.

"Hoho not bad, but it'll take more than that if you want to beat us. Charlie use _Aerial Ace_ as well."-Dad decides to pursue.

I remember in the game that certain moves were sure hit moves but that was there, here in this world there were some methods to avoid them, even if all else fails one could directly go head to head with another move of their own as it was not a turn based battle like in the game and moves could clash. Regardless of that, going head on against Dad with brute force was definitely not wise even if you were battling him with the same Pokémon with nearly identical stats, his _Innate skill_ would ensure he came out on top it would be better if I play to my strengths. Thinking till here I choose to evade the attack and ordered-

"Quick Charlotte use _Double Team_." –I call out, suddenly there were multiple after images of Charlotte and Charlie just passed through one of them without dealing any damage to her.

"Cut them all down with _Air Cutter_ Charlie."-Dad. I could tell that he was panicking from his voice. As Charlie unleashed his attack in all directions one of them hit true and Charlotte dropped towards the ground.

"Don't let up use _Slash_ , its time to end this."-Dad decided to go for the win, with his skill boosting strength and the critical hit chance it just might be over if this attack hits. I remain calm and as Charlotte reaches the ground, I wait for Charlie to approach with a faint smile on my face-

"Steady Charlotte, wait for it... now dodge and use _Sand Attack_."-me, Charlotte evaded the attack just in time and Charlie got a good amount of sand in his eyes.

"Oh no Charlie on your left quick use _Cut_."-Dad, he was really starting to panic now. With all my preparation it would be very difficult for Charlie to attack us as I used moves that perfectly compliment my skill's effect.

"Charlotte use _Knock Off_ aim for the base of the stick *Pa*."-me, although Charlie swung wildly with considerable force he was quite a ways off target and it was very easy for Charlotte's attack to land resulting in the _Stick_ held by the opponent to be sent flying.

"Charlotte use _Slash_."-I call out calmly. Charlie was disarmed and completely disoriented; Dad was pulling at his hair in frustration.

...

"You little brat, feeling all smug now are you."-Dad was more upset at the loss than I thought. He was now giving me a noogie; he was still not very fierce though, in a way he seemed to be happy about the battle and my strength. I guess this is what they mean when they say 'being happy and upset about the strength/progress of their child'.

"Don't think this is over we'll battle again tomorrow *ahem* I was holding back as it was your first Pokémon battle but next time I'll show you what I'm really made of."-Dad said.

"..."-I gave him a sceptical look.

"What's with that look? Huh.. Think your Dad's a weak pushover huh."-Dad started to act funny.

"No no, I know that Dad is very strong, even when facing an opponent who has a type advantage Dad doesn't lose. Your team work with Charlie and Charlotte is amazing."- I praise him, Charlotte and Charlie are nodding their heads off to the side in agreement to what I said, they seem to have recovered quite well thanks to my medicinal blends and a couple of _Potions_.

"*Humpf* Flattery will get you nowhere, you still have to battle me tomorrow."-he said gruffly but he seemed to have calmed down thanks to my words.

"OK we can battle again tomorrow but its getting late now and we still need to collect more wood so let's go."- I remind him. There was no getting out of battling with my Dad again it seemed but I was not upset at all in fact I was looking forward to it, battling with Pokémon was so much fun.

So we set off again to cut more wood, this time Charlotte accompanied Dad and Charlie and I teamed up. Though it took some experience to know which tree to cut I seemed to be able to do just fine thanks to _**[Insight]**_ , not too long back I discovered other applications for my skills, it seemed as though that a person's _Innate skills_ had other passive effects as well. It was nothing concrete and couldn't be explained precisely, most people even go their entire lives without really noticing it apparently but these passive aspects of a _Skill_ surly existed, it could even influence a person's character. Take mine for example- I have a high comprehension ability allowing me to learn fast, I have a calm and even temperament that enables me to figure out solutions to sticky situations quickly and make good judgements, also my senses were keener than most people. Although my skill is somewhat similar to Mom's her passive abilities seemed to be focused more towards helping in her research as well as giving her a very rational and cunning personality and Dad's skill gave him a firm and open personality, he believed in his ideals and would firmly protect that which was important to him with all his strength. So following this conjecture I started to make plans so as to best use my skill, firstly I started learning more advanced material then started postulating the best ways to apply the knowledge, from all that I had learnt and the memories I had from my previous life I began to wonder if any developments can be made to existing systems.

Anyway we finished gathering today's quota of wood and headed back. Pokémon battles became a regular thing for us as we had one battle everyday from then on, regardless of everything Dad was really strong even though I won most of the time it was only just barely (Dad had a grasp of my tactics now and he was improving as well). One day he said to me "Son you might think that Farfetche'd are weak Pokémon but know this- there are no such things as weak or trash Pokémon only trash Trainers, you don't become a strong trainer just by catching strong Pokémon you need to raise them yourself, taking shortcuts give no benefits in the long run." I definitely agreed with what he said as he really followed this principle and the results were glaringly obvious. While training Pokémon, it is best to go step by step with minimal use of external aid in the form of new technology, I mean sure when you want to quickly raise their stats you could use _Proteins, Iron, Carbos,_ etc. or even _Rare Candies_ if you could get them but all their effects were superficial, even instantly teaching your Pokémon new moves with the use of _HM's_ & _TM's_ was not recommended, it was best to slowly tutor them yourself so that your Pokémon would be more familiar with their attacks and can even perform variations of them easily and truly make the moves their own.

I took all this information to heart, absorbing every bit of advice like a sponge. I had seen quite a few trainers come to Dad to borrow the _Cut HM_ but the attacks were not even half as good as Dad's Pokémon who practised countless times in the woods by this I was reminded of a saying from Bruce Lee in my old world- "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." So I swore to myself that when I got my own Pokémon I would train them properly and treat them well. And so we polished our battling skills in the forest every day, sometimes one of my wild Pokémon friends would not be able to keep their blood from boiling after watching us battle and would challenge us as well so I even got experience battling various different Pokémon.

One day a couple months after my first battle I heard a very panicked and fearful scream from close by as I was collecting some water from a stream in the forest for lunch. The voice sounded familiar so Charlotte and I rushed to go see what was happening and boy was it a good thing that I did. What came to my line of sight was a young girl of about 5 (my age) being chased by a swarm of angry Beedrill while tightly holding on to a basket of some large colourful nut like objects. It was my classmate Heart Campbell, it seemed as though she had run afoul with a hive of Beedrill, I quickly rush over to help.

"What are you doing here you you... I don't want your help, go away or the Beedrill will attack you as well."-she said in flustered voice as she changed direction slightly to lead the Beedrill away from me. Seeing this my impression of her grew, she could have taken my help and reduce her risks or even downright made me her scapegoat but she didn't seem to want to hurt others for her own gains. I had to help her, so I rushed to her and got between her and the Beedrill swarm and asked Charlotte to attack-"Charlotte use _Sand Attack_." As the a large dust cloud was kicked up the Beedrill all halted in their tracks and upon later spotting me when the dust settled stopped pursuing entirely and flew back into the depths of the forest.

"H..how..wh..what how did you do that?"-Heart questions me as she catches her breath in great big gasps.

"I come to the forest often with Dad so I sort of know the Pokémon here and they won't hurt me, we're friends."-I explain.

"*Humpf* figures they're your friends after all."- She retorts back.

"..."-my good impression of her is fading away real fast.

"An..anyway thanks for saving me."- She mutters while pouting and facing off to the side.

...*pft* I laugh, I couldn't help it she looked so cute as she did that.

"You...you what are you laughing at huh?"- She starts off and approaches me with her face completely red and arms flailing as if she wants to throttle me.

Suddenly *gur gur gur*... I hear a strange sound; I look around for the source of the sound as I've become familiar with the forest but never heard such a strange sound in here before. Heart has stopped as well and seems more embarrassed all of a sudden, then it hits me the sound came from her, her stomach to be exact, it seems as though she is starving, well I'd be hungry too if I was chased around in the woods.

"H..hey are you hungry?"- I question her nervously.

"Of course I'm hungry you idiot."-was her reply as she turned even redder in the face following another series of grumbles from her stomach.

"Well, would you like to join us for lunch, my Dad and I have a spot set up just beyond the stream over there."- I invite her over as I point towards our lunch spot.

"No thanks, I just dropped my lunch box back there when those Beedrill chased me, I'll go get it and I'll eat by myself."- She said, though she looked a little nervous.

"Okay then, just be careful Beedrill swarms aren't the only dangers around here."- I warn her before turning around to head back.

"Wa..wa..wait, you're just going to leave me here, f..ff..fine I'll go with you just wait up."- She panics at the mention of the Beedrill swarm and decides to follow.

As we are having lunch I decide to question her on what she was doing in the forest all by herself-

"Y wuff wikin aficons foo gamfa."(I was picking _Apricorns_ for Grandpa)- She said with her little mouth stuffed with food, guess she was really hungry.

"I see, but you should have been more careful Heart dear its very dangerous in the forest when you're all by yourself, it was a good thing Sage found you when he did, otherwise I don't know what would have happened. How would I explain to your parents *sigh*. Well you're safe now and that's all that matters."-Dad tries to comfort her but I think that the food's done all the comforting needed.

Hearing that, Heart swallowed hard and glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes hoping not to be noticed but then turning a bright red when she saw she'd been caught. I smile and laugh a little looking at her reaction.

"Why were you picking _Apricorns_ in the forest by yourself? Couldn't you ask your parents or your Grandpa to accompany you? That way it would have been a lot safer."- I ask.

She becomes silent for a while, is it just me or does it feel like she looks really sad right now, then she replies-"Dad had to go back to Silph co. in Saffron City because of work and Mom went to accompany him, its just me and Grandpa here now but Grandpa is always busy as well so I wanted to help him. I was going to surprise him with all the _Apricorns_ I picked, then he will praise me and play with me more."

"..."-Hearing this neither my dad nor I knew what to say and an awkward silence started to build up as we ate lunch, even Heart was eating very quietly now. When we were done-

"I should head back; Grandpa is probably worried sick by now so I better hurry."- Heart decides to break the ice.

"Hang on I'll come with you in case you run into more wild Pokémon."- I offer to accompany her out of the forest; she surprisingly doesn't argue back and agrees to my offer. Dad also seems to think that it would be safer so Charlie and I head out to escort Heart back home.

I couldn't take the silence after a while on our journey out of the forest so I finally speak up-

"I think it was really nice of you to help your Grandpa, but I can't deny that what you did was dangerous."- I say, just then a bunch of Paras come scuttling across our path and Heart quickly jumps behind me in fright while screaming "kyaa...".

"Its okay calm down, see they're really friendly as long as you don't startle or annoy them."- I say as I slowly bend down and rub a few of the Paras on the head. Heart stares at me wide eyed and I ask her-"Do you want to be friends with them too, come closer slowly and I'll introduce them to you."- I motion for her to come closer while pulling out some cut slices of _Pecha berries._ "Here, give these to them they like sweets."- I give a few to her; she gently takes them and gives them to the Paras. The Paras soon crowd around her and start nibbling at the berry slices, she suddenly freezes after being surrounded (*pft* she looks so funny right now). I tell her that its okay to gently pet them and she nervously reaches out her hand towards one of the Paras and slowly rubs them on the head mimicking what I did before. The Paras seems to like it as it scuttles closer to her and she seems to enjoy it as well. Soon as we make our way out of the forest we come across various wild Pokémon and I give a brief introduction to all of them and some even approach us to say hello, she really seems to be enjoying herself now with not a trace of the earlier fear towards the forest Pokémon.

"How did you make the wild Pokémon become so friendly to you? We came across so many of them and we haven't been attacked even once and Charlie doesn't need to attack at all."- Heart asks as she looks at Charlie who is walking by our side as if without a care in the world.

"You must be calm and sincere when dealing with them, when I first came to the forest it was not so easy to approach them but slowly after many days my intentions got through to them and we all became friends."- I answer back.

"You must spend a lot of time in the forest then huh, no wonder you got along so well with the Pokémon at the school so fast."-Heart.

"By the way why did you join school so early, I mean you are a bit younger than me and I myself started school early soo..."- I trail off.

"Well its so that I don't disturb Grandpa too much, with my parents away its hard for Grandpa to look after me by himself so I decided to join school and lighten his burden a little."- She answers.

"..."- I'm amazed at how considerate she is. She sees me staring at her and asks -"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing I was just surprised that's all. That was very nice of you to think of your Grandpa and help him."- I reply honestly.

"Well I really wanted to help and I don't want to be left alone, I get scared some times that no one will be my friend any more or even play with me."- She replies in a sad and quiet tone.

"I'll be your friend, we can play together anytime you want and you can make more friends here in the forest as well.."- I don't know why but before I knew it the words were already out of my mouth, maybe it was because I couldn't take that sad and hurt expression of hers any longer.

"Hahaha... let's hurry back home for now."- She said while laughing and giving me a strange look.

When we finally near Heart's home we spot her Grandpa Kurt looking worried and speaking to Officer Jenny, we soon rush over and Heart calls out –"Grandpa!". Kurt starts at the sound and turns in our direction, upon seeing that his Granddaughter is safe and sound he rushes over with tears in his eyes calling-"Oh my darling Heart where have you been? Grandpa was worried sick when you didn't return home from school right away."

"Young lady, where have you been? Do you have any idea how much worry you caused to your Grandpa?"-Officer Jenny rebukes her.

"She wanted to help Grandpa Kurt by gathering _Apricorns_ so I accompanied her."- I hurry to defend her.

"Ho so it was you that kidnapped my Granddaughter was it."- Kurt glares at me but Heart hurriedly defends me by saying-"No it wasn't Sage's fault, it was me who wanted to gather _Apricorns_ by myself in the forest but then I came across a swarm of wild Beedrill and if it wasn't for Sage who happened to find me on time and chase away the Beedrill I don't know what might have happened."

"Is that so?"- Officer Jenny questions and she soon spills the beans and describes all the events that transpired in the forest right up to the point where I escorted her back home.

Both Officer Jenny and Kurt remain quiet for some time afterwards and then finally with a nudge from Heart Kurt says –"Well in that case you have my thanks young man for helping little Heart and bringing her back home safely. I will be sure to remember this favour." Officer Jenny thanks me and praises me as well. Eventually I head back saying farewell to the three when Heart says-"Bye Sage see you tomorrow at school."

"Yeah see you tomorrow."- I wave back as I make my way back to the forest.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter-5**

The next day during beak time at school Heart walks up to me and says-"Hey, can I come with you to the forest today and play?"

"..."- I stare blankly at her when she suddenly dropped that bomb on me.

"What? You did say that I could play with you any time and that you'd be my friend, are you going back on your word now?"- She questions through narrowed eyes.

"No no its just that... well... did you ask your Grandpa, is he okay with you going off to the forest to play."- I enquire.

"Of course, either way I'm not going to be in any danger in there with you around. Well I did plead with him saying that I feel lonely and that I feel a little neglected because he and my parents were always busy with their own things, he seemed to relent quite easily after that."- She said in a very innocent manner and then sticks her tongue out at me before running off leaving me stunned in place. I can't help but think that she is way too diabolical for her age, anything she wants she works with unrelenting fervour to get.

Maybe its because of her _Innate Unique Skill_ _**[Passion]**_ , among all the _Innate Skills_ I have seen thus far it seems to be one of the strangest, its effects on the person include:

-Improved all-round strength and reflexes.

\- High stamina.

\- _Desire Reality_ : again a really broken ability that seems to let the person be able to master new skill sets quickly if they deeply desired to do so.

Its effects in a Pokémon battle are:

-Pokémon fight with extreme Passion, 5% boost to all stats.

-15% decreased chance of stat reducing move taking effect and effect of stat reduction on your Pokémon.

I guess her being able to convince her Grandpa could sort of be because of her _Skill's_ passive ability which could work in a similar manner to _Desire Reality_ which helps her fulfil her desires. Well that's just me guessing but anyway Heart accompanies me to Ilex Forest after school, she even has her own lunch and snacks prepared for the occasion *sigh*, and so I head to meet up with Dad at our usual meeting place followed by Heart who is humming a tune and skipping along merrily.

On the way she asks me various questions about all the Pokémon I know, how I met them, how I know so much about them, what other secrets I might be keeping and so on, she seems to be curious about everything so I tell her everything I can well obviously not fact about my reincarnation or anything really personal like my _Innate skill_ but I try my best to share my knowledge with her as well. Once I was done explaining about how I acquired so much knowledge related to Pokémon from the library she seemed really astounded and begged me to teach her some of what I'd learnt to which I could only relent. When we finally reached the clearing where my Dad was waiting for us, I saw that he wasn't really surprised to see Heart accompany me, it seems as though Kurt had had a word with Dad prior to this.

Well I now had another playmate my own age. Heart seemed very interested in all our activities as well as learning about and befriending various Pokémon with me. Needless to say she was most drawn to the Pokémon battle which had become a regular between Dad and me; she requested to borrow a Pokémon from her Dad as soon as she reached home the same day. Her dad responded quickly (maybe she guilt tripped him too; truly diabolical), her dad transferred his Slowpoke to her the very next day. She was very eager to have a go at battling, unfortunately she wasn't very good at it (hey it was her first attempt at it), needless to say she threw a massive tantrum after losing and both Dad and I paid the price-

"Poki, use _Water Gun_."-Heart called out, when her Slowpoke-Poki- came round she had him use _Water Gun_ on Dad and me, we were soaked to the skin.

She eventually calmed down after much soothing and promising to help her get better, and she definitely did get better what with that _Innate Unique Skill_ of hers. She was really passionate in learning everything we could teach her, I felt that I had to step up my game or I would soon be left in the dust by her. She wasn't very interested in the more theoretical and research related subjects but more in care of Pokémon, battling and personal fitness/playing games and fooling around in general. It wasn't only a one way deal where only Heart benefitted, once she learnt that I was also interested in a few research topics she took it upon herself to get her Grandpa to take me in as an apprentice, the old man had no resistance to her and grudgingly took me in, to his surprise I turned out to be of great help to him and I also got to learn _Poke ball_ manufacturing from him so it was a win-win for the both of us. Well the days were more interesting after that thanks to the always hyper and enthusiastic Heart.

Today was going to be a very interesting day at school as it was now three months from when I started and it was time for the annual school field trip, it wasn't just the fact that this was my first field trip in this world that got me excited but the fact that Bugsy the gym leader of the Azalea town gym would be accompanying us as we explore the Slowpoke well cave system just outside town. The other kids and I were really excited, this was definitely better than the field trips they used to take us on back at Pinkerton were their usual chosen destinations were some boring farms or the local factories. So there we were all twenty two children with a couple of school teachers taking the role of escorts assembled at the playground before dawn, soon Bugsy arrived under the worshipping gazes of the kids and gave us a few basic guidelines and instruction to follow while in the cave system then he was happy to interact with the kids, answering their questions and even give them a few pointers as we waited for sunrise before we set out.

We set out at the crack of dawn and proceeded towards Slowpoke well in two neat lines with Bugsy leading the way, two teachers Ms Jenna and Ms Kelly at our flank and Mr Charles watching the rear. It was a slow journey but thankfully no one was complaining due to their excitement. I found it a little odd that they would let 5-7 year olds enter a place as dangerous as the Slowpoke well cave system for a field trip, the fact that an important and busy personage such as a Gym Leader was accompanying us was even more bizarre. As we were walking I paid attention to the conversation between the teachers at our flank and learnt the answers to my questions. It turns out that a team of researchers and archaeologists had found some passages in the Ruins of Alph and some seemed to lead in this general direction but the passage on that side had collapsed over time and the whole structure was not stable enough for further excavation to be done, so they had requested the local Gym Leader to start the investigate on this side in the time it took them to send a team here. The timing for all this just so happened to coincide with our school's field trip and our Principal who had also taught Bugsy before requested to let the students accompany him and he agreed.

It was an hour's journey from the school to the entrance to Slowpoke well but it took us nearly two hours thanks to some of the less active kids eventually whining to get some rest- it was a good thing we set off early or else I don't when we wouldn't have much time to explore later on. The surrounding forest path soon gave way, showing signs of turning into a mountainous one, the air got noticeably drier even though it was still the early hours of morning, and soon we were hiking along a mountain path to our destination. It was about 15 minutes after we got on the mountain that we spotted our destination not far away, an ancient stone well sat on a wide flat ledge of the mountain with a large 10m opening behind it leading into the mountain itself. We all take a brief rest on the ledge around the well as our teachers draw some water from the well, upon having a taste of the cool fresh water I'm amazed the as it so good, I had never tasted water like this in my previous life, this world really wasn't plagued by pollution like my old one.

We all refilled our bottles and then the teachers asked us to pair up and gave a flashlight to each pair to prevent us from wandering off by ourselves in the caves. Heart soon rushed to my side to be my partner, soon everyone had a partner and before another stern reminder of the safety instructions we set off led by Bugsy. As we were walking through, the teachers began explaining about the various rock formations, native Pokémon and their habits and general guidelines to keep in mind when exploring any cave system. They even asked us to observe and take note of any wild Pokémon we may spot along the way. We made our way through the passages as quietly as we could, I saw that the wild Pokémon were keeping a certain distance from us- it maybe because we were such a large group but mostly due to the fact that Bugsy had emptied an entire can of _Max Repel_ on us before entering the cave, _Repels_ seem to work based on time rather than number of steps like in the game as he told us that the effects of the _Max Repel_ would last a full 3 hours. Zubat and Rattata constituted the majority of the Pokémon we came across with the occasional Slowpoke or Geodude making an appearance, well it was still the outer reaches of the cave, the stronger Pokémon tend to dwell deeper in.

"Hmm the Pokémon here are different than the ones we usually see in the Ilex Forest."- Heart whisper's by my ear.

"Well there are many different types of Pokémon and they all inhabit regions that are most suitable for them in the wild, the environment of a forest is vastly different from that of a cave so naturally you would not find Pokémon native to forest habitats in caves or the other way around normally."- I explain to her.

"But there are Rattata here and I've seen them in the forest and near the town as well, so how come there are no Weedles here or Zubat in the forest?"-She questions again.

"Rattata can survive in various environments with only a few extreme environments being unsuitable for them to inhabit, as for Weedles not being here they simply aren't capable of surviving here for long without trees and plants but you got one thing wrong, there are Zubat in Ilex Forest its just that they are not active during the hours where we explore, they are nocturnal so are only active at night or in the dark like in this cave."-I patiently explain to her.

"Hmm.."-She ponders over everything I said before asking more questions, she seems really eager to learn new things and its not just her, I notice the other kids around us getting closer and listening in on our conversation with rapt attention. Pretty soon even they were asking me some of their own questions and I did my best to answer them all to the best of my abilities, it soon became apparent to everyone present that I was extremely knowledgeable for my age which got me special attention from the teachers and Bugsy not to mention some of the kids who got really jealous gave me the 'Nerd' tag *sigh* it couldn't be helped I guess as I had to reveal some of my capabilities at some point.

We cautiously made our way deeper into the caves past numerous turns and forks in the path, I could tell from their expressions that even the teachers were finding it hard to keep track of our journey, thankfully Bugsy led the way occasionally consulting a detailed map before proceeding and as for the students they simply didn't pay any attention to the route as they were distracted by their new surroundings. Stronger Pokémon started appearing there were now even Raticates, Golbats, Graveler and even the occasional Onyx or Golem in the distance that our party had to quietly circle around when encountered. The Slowpokes and Slowbros were mostly found close to the water bodies and they were very relaxed and not the least bit aggressive to our party, we even took a break by one of their ponds while Bugsy took some time to decide the best path forward that would bring us to our goal which was the connecting corridor to the Ruins of Alph, while we waited the teachers decided to give us a surprise quiz about all the various things we encountered today and then give us a brief lesson on different Pokémon habitats going into more detail regarding cave and forest habitats seeing as they were closest to our town. All the kids paid extra attention to this lesson in a bid to outdo me, I didn't know if I should feel glad that they were inspired by me or fearful that they would shun and hate me due to competition.

After a 45 minute break as Bugsy finally decided on the path forward we got up and continued our trek deeper into the caverns. Deeper in the caves we came across even more amazing things, some of the kids were very excited having found the occasional small low quality crystals which they immediately pocketed as a souvenir, we would even find some dropped items if we looked really hard and got lucky. Gradually the teachers who were beginning to lose control of the class decided to propose a treasure hunt of sorts in order to bring some order to the madness that was bound to unfold, at least with a treasure hunt game they could ensure that the kids would stick to the rules in order to stay in the game. While the other kids were drawn to the various trinkets my attention was drawn to the various kinds of _Mushrooms_ and _Moss_ growing deep in the caves, some of these possessed marvellous medicinal properties. It needs to be understood that just as forests had a few sources for nourishment of Pokémon so did the caves thus I got busy with harvesting some of the plants I had read about in a herbology book, as I was unearthing a particularly deep rooted _Purple Mushroom_ with antidote like effects I found a finger sized scarlet crystal tangled in the roots. From the looks of it the purity seemed quite high, just as I was taking a closer look at it I spotted Heart out of the corner of my eye looking at me with sad puppy dog eyes from not far away. She had terrible luck in the treasure hunting game though she was giving it her all, eventually I couldn't take that sad face any longer and just gave her the crystal I found which earned me a hug and a bright smile from her as well as the hatful glare of every male in my class *sigh*. I paid little attention to the looks others were giving me and just continued gathering herbs.

We were quite deep in the cave system now and just when the teachers were discussing if it would be better to turn back and have us kids just explore the outer regions as Bugsy had separated a few minutes ago to scout the route ahead, we heard the loud rumble of rolling boulders. We got closer to have a better look; a group of Graveler led by a Golem had surrounded a small young Zubat and were relentlessly attacking the poor thing, I really wanted to charge forward to help even though there was not much I could do but Mr Charles the teacher nearest to me held me back firmly. The Zubat was hurt quite badly and was struggling to stay in the air where it had a chance to escape but unfortunately Golem used _Rock Throw_ on it and one of the rocks fell on its wing and pinned it to the ground. I couldn't take it any longer and struggled violently to escape my teachers grasp, apparently Zubat couldn't bear it any longer either as it let out loud wail-it was using _Supersonic_ as a final gambit. The Golem and gang couldn't stand it and fled and Mr Charles's grip on me loosened thanks to the din, so I took the opportunity to break free and proceed to the fallen Zubat. If you think it was easy to advance while Zubat was using _Supersonic_ then think again, it was worse than a hundred people using their nails to claw a chalk board, I could swear that it felt that my ears would start bleeding any second now but I still advanced towards Zubat slowly speaking in soft tones trying to calm it down. It really started to put up a struggle when I got next to it so I quickly pushed the rock pinning its wing away lest it hurt itself more. With the rock no longer pinning it down it tried to fly away but it was no use as the wing was broken and all it could bring itself to do to defend itself was to bite my fingers, I winced because of the pain but still gently caressed Zubat to coax it to let go, at least it was no longer using _Supersonic_ now that it had its teeth in my fingers. I used my free hand to pull out some medicine and some of the herbs I'd gathered and applied them on Zubat as gently as I could but it still winced and shivered with pain and was nearing collapse. I bandaged it up as best I could and gently picked it up, after seeing that I meant no harm it released my fingers and I could see blood slowly dripping from my fingers but I wasn't very concerned over it right now. I pulled out a _Citrus berry_ from my bag and crushed it in my hands as best I could before slowly feeding it to Zubat so that it could recover its energy, after eating its fill and seeing that it was no longer in danger it fell asleep in my arms.

My classmates and teachers were still in a daze over the events and only seemed to recover when I approached them, the kids all surrounded me to check on the Zubat but the teachers pulled them back saying that the injured Pokémon needed rest, they looked at me as though they were deciding if it would be better to scold me for rushing into danger or praise me for my impressive first aid skill but for now they said nothing and just told me to be more careful and look after the Zubat. Heart pulled out a handkerchief and stepped forward to cover up the wound on my fingers while pouting and saying-"Be careful idiot." To which I could only reply with a simple smile, was it just me or was her face really red right now.

Noticing me staring at her she quickly decides to change the topic by saying-"Are you going to take that Zubat back home with you?" Even the teachers were paying attention to my answer as they were curious to know what my plan was.

"No, I'll take it to Nurse Joy as soon as we get back to town; it won't be safe to just release it back into the wild as its wing is broken. Once its fully healed I'll bring it back here."- I reply, hearing my reply the teachers become firm on their decision to call it a day and head back. Bugsy had given the teachers a map with directions to the exit clearly marked before separating from our group while saying that it would be more dangerous further inside the cave and that we could leave with the kids at any point if they so choose to. Although some of the kids were a bit upset at having the field trip cut short they soon agreed to the decision when they heard that it was to get the injured Zubat to the Pokémon Centre as soon as possible; they were very sincere as they stopped playing the treasure hunt game and didn't even complain about the fast pace we kept up on our journey out of the cave, just these little actions showed that although they acted like brats at times but their hearts were truly kind and pure.

Although we had a map and were hurrying back it took nearly an hour before we entered the outer zones of the caves after a few wrong turns along the way. Zubat had regained its conscious by now and though it was still weak and any movement of its broken wing caused it to cry out in great pain, it was no longer hostile towards me. Whenever the other kids or the teacher tried to approach it or touch it, it would curl up in my hands while shivering, I would then glare at them telling them to leave it alone to rest. Just as we were approaching the particularly large cavern with the pond of Slowpoke that separated the inner and outer zones of the cave we heard a familiar loud rumbling from behind approaching our party at great speed which caused Zubat who was resting in my hands to go crazy and thrash about wildly. When we all turned around to see what was causing the sound we were momentarily frozen in shock and fear as the Golem and Graveler gang from earlier was hot on our heels. It was now that the teachers showed us how amazing they were as they each released their respective Pokémon- Ms Jenna called her Clafairy, Mr Charles his Rattata and Ms Kelly her Meowth- although these normal types couldn't really do much damage to and scare away our pursuers but due to their experience and familiarity with each other they could still assist in ensuring our escape to safety. The teachers coordinated in using an amazing combination move to ensure our safety- Mr Charles Ordered Rattata to take the vanguard position and use _Protect_ while the Meowth and Clafairy were ordered to use _Flash_ and _Sing_ respectively. The effect was amazing as all our pursuers were briefly stunned by the blinding light which in turn made them easier victims to the effects of _Sing_ causing many of them to roll off course and crash into the cave walls and causing the cave to shake slightly, the few that managed to roll in our direction were stopped by the protective barrier setup by Rattata. No wonder the school management picked these teachers to escort us; even without Bugsy's help they were still capable of ensuring our safety. Just when we thought that we were safe the Golem blearily rose to its feet with a strange look in its eyes and then jumped, as a last ditch attempt it used _Earthquake_ causing the entire passage to shake violently and rocks to start falling from the ceiling.

The teachers quickly recalled their Pokémon and yelled at us to rush to the large Slowpoke Cavern, the other kids and I ran like mad towards the Cavern entrance. Struggling to calm the panicking Zubat in my hands caused me to lag behind the other kids slightly even though I was more fit and athletic than them. When we were nearly clear of the passage and into the cavern a particularly large rock fell from the ceiling straight above Heart, as I was behind the rest I could clearly tell that if I didn't do something it would be bad and no one had noticed or were able to help in time so I rushed forward and tackled her from behind pushing her to safety as well as using the recoil to pull back and evade the falling rock myself. I turned around to prevent landing on Zubat and was thus able to see the passage collapse and seal itself in front of me, I was now separated from everyone else.

Golem was still very unsteady on its feet and barely awake, it then used _Rollout_ as a last attempt at striking at us. I looked around in desperation for a path to escape and fortunately spotted a crack that had opened up on the side of the passage after the _Earthquake_ , it was just big enough for me to squeeze through but not the Golem or Graveler. So I made a run for it with the still struggling Zubat, the crack was just a few feet away and the Golem had bad aim, it crashed into the passage wall beside the crack just moments after I was through the crack.

I noticed that as soon as I was through the crack I found myself in a new passage that was very different from the one I was in previously. The Golem was growling in rage on the other side, it soon quietened down as _Sing_ might have finally taken full affect on it. I was just considering whether it would be wise to return to the earlier passage before it finally hit me as to how different this passage was from the previous one, where the previous one had rough surfaces and an uneven path like any natural cave this one had smooth walls and a cobbled floor. I calmed the Zubat in my arms by giving it an _Oran berry_ to munch on and moved closer to inspect the walls of the passage. In the dim lights I could somewhat make out some carvings engraved on them in a strange font, after moving my fingers over the carvings I finally found out what they were- it was the engravings of Unknown that were all over the place in the Ruins of Alph- apparently I had stumbled upon the passage from the Ruins of Alph Bugsy had been requested to find. I was momentarily stunned as my desire to explore and need to regroup with my class warred with one another, eventually the adventurer in me won out and I decided to slowly explore the passage. As I'd ended up in the middle of a corridor I was not sure which direction I should proceed in and as I was squinting really hard at the engravings on the wall to see if I could gleam some sort of information about which way to go something amazing happened. My eyes started becoming warm and I suddenly experienced an intense headache, the strange feeling was gone almost as soon as it came and I was very shocked to see the now changed surroundings. Well it wasn't the surroundings themselves that had changed but my own eyes, it was now as though I was seeing through a set of night vision goggles as my surroundings were clearly visible but with a greenish tint to it, what was stranger still were the carvings that seemed to glow with an eerie golden light now. It seemed as though it had something to do with my _Innate skill_ effect 'Prying eye', something in this place must have triggered a previously unknown use for it. Either way thanks to this new ability I noticed that the carvings to my right seemed to glow brighter further in and there seemed to be a faint glowing white fog in the distance, my desire to explore was kindled and so I went to explore.

As I made my way towards the region with thick white fog I also paid attention to the carvings along the wall, most of them I couldn't make out at all but a few bits and pieces I could read-'Path to new Realms', 'Temple of the Ancient Guardians', 'Unity of Mind, Body and Spirit'- which constantly provoked my curiosity and caused me to think of many wild theories. It wasn't very long before I was shrouded in the thick white fog, Zubat became oddly quiet and relaxed here, when I took closer look I found that strands of the fog were circling around it and some of its bruises were visibly fading. I was amazed to see that the fog had restorative properties on Pokémon; I sped up my pace to see what surprises were further in store for me. Soon the fog became so thick that I could no longer see the passage walls at all, everything beyond a couple of feet was white fog. I slowed down and became more cautious, just then there was a distortion in the fog in front of me and suddenly I felt my entire body heating up, the temperature was so high that it felt as though a fire was burning in my veins, I immediately fell to my knees and curled in on myself due to the pain. As I started to scream the Zubat in my arms noticed my condition and let out eager calls as if trying to sooth me, seemingly because of this a strand of fog around Zubat extended out to encircle me and I suddenly found the pain vanishing as if put out by the fog.

When I came to and opened my eyes I was surprised to see that I was no longer in the passage but in a large grand hall. The floor was stilled cobbled stone and the walls still had carvings on them but there were also large pillars along the sides of the hall like those in Roman temples in my old world and there was an altar at the other end of the hall from where I stood. I was stunned by this grand scene as I slowly made my way towards the altar on the other side of the hall. Up close the altar although appearing bland in design gave off a feeling as though it had withstood countless eons of time and had seen all under heaven, atop the altar there was a single transparent crystal with dense carvings on it. I slowly reached out to take the crystal hoping that there weren't any booby traps that would be triggered that would kill me instantly like in some of the movies I'd seen, I'd already inspected around the altar and found nothing amiss so I had reached for the crystal. I suddenly yanked out the crystal and dashed backward just in case but still nothing happened, only then did I turn to focus more on the crystal in my hand. It was of the highest quality I had seen thus far and was probably even the best quality, I focused on the carvings but they were so dense and small that I had no hope of understanding what was written. As I brushed my fingers over crystal to remove the dust on it some of my blood from the bite wound from Zubat was smeared onto it.

The crystal absorbed the blood like a sponge and suddenly started trembling and buzzing in my hands, it soon shattered into tiny fragments that showed signs of further breaking apart, at the same time a golden glowing mist emerged from the fragments and entered into my body through my arm. I suddenly felt as though a massive amount of information was filling my head, it was so fast and there was so much information that my head felt like it was going to explode any time now. The only words that I was able to process in the instant before I passed out were-'Aura Realm Cultivation'.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter-6**

My surroundings were completely white and it felt as though I was floating on the most comfortable cloud, I felt that I could sleep here forever. Some corner of my consciousness was wondering where I was and how I got here but that was a very very small portion of my psyche, slowly my memories of recent events came back to me and I started to panic- Where was I? Was everyone else okay? Was the injured Zubat doing fine? Had the others found me? - As my mind was spiralling into chaos I suddenly awoke from the dream like state I was in. The moment I opened my eyes I was greeted with a very familiar ceiling, I was in my own room, on my bed. Just when I was wondering how I ended up here and if I was still dreaming a loud shriek startled me, it was accompanied by a weeping voice that was half worried and half happy-"Oh Sage honey you're finally awake, do you know how worried your Dad and I were. I'm so glad you're okay now, you are totally fine now right? How could you put yourself in danger like that? What were you thinking? Did you even consider our feelings when you were being a daredevil in the Slowpoke Well?"- Mom started off being very happy and glad at the beginning and eventually going off to lecturing and scolding me. I was smothered in a bear hug when Dad entered the room-"You gave us quite a scare there sport. Your Mom was so worried; she nearly drove the doctors insane."-Dad.

"*Humpf* as I recall it was you who was threatening the doctors not me."-Mom, the mood soon simmered down now that I was awake and out of danger. I could still see signs of exhaustion on my Parent's faces, especially Mom as she had rushed from her lab in a flight when she got the news, they both had bags under their eyes and their hair and clothes were a little dishevelled, but despite all that my Parents tried to shrug it off so as not to upset me. I had tears in my eyes as wept and said I was sorry to both of them and we all huddled into a hug. After much comforting they told me to rest some more and wait as they prepared some food for me, I didn't want to just lie in bed anymore and wanted to help with the cooking like usual but I was forced to rest in bed.

I later learnt that I was unconscious for an entire day so my Parents decided to fill me in on all the things that had elapsed. Well the Zubat was safe and sound and was currently recuperating in the Pokémon Center and would soon make a full recovery, it was thanks to Zubat that I was found so quickly in the first place as its shrill cry was what guided the search party to our location. There was also the news of the discovery of the passage and hall linked to the Ruins of Alph so a lot of researchers were flooding into town, as I was the first to discover it there were talks regarding giving me a reward but I could sense that the reward was just a cover to interrogate me. Needless to say my Parents adamantly refused the reward and also told the researchers to not pester us. I later learnt that there was no more glowing mist or any other strange phenomena at the site, just a plain regular ruin. After I had eaten my fill and all my questions were answered Mom took the dishes out of the room while telling me to get some more rest.

I was alone in the room again so I tried to recall what happened in the grand hall before I lost consciousness and what caused me to black out in the first place. My thoughts immediately spun to the crystal on the altar, after absorbing my blood it had shattered and a glowing golden gas had seeped into my body. I concentrated more on that and the events that followed, as I calmly closed my eyes and tried to remember I found something extraordinary. I had new information about cultivating _Aura_ in my memory, I don't know how exactly it got there but it was definitely there. I tried to calm down but I was just way too excited, eventually I regained my bearings and started to slowly analyse the cultivation method. It was called the ' _Aura Realm Cultivation'_ technique, there were details pertaining to sensing _Aura_ , absorbing it, circulating it within oneself as well as some breathing techniques and exercises. There was also quite a bit of information on the uses of _Aura_ , for instance it could be used like _Chakra_ or _Qi_ to strengthen the body sort of like in Naruto, it could also be used to speed up recovery of oneself and others be it people or Pokémon and strangely enough if one tried really hard one would even be able to communicate with Nature and Pokémon as well.

Just when I was beginning to get hyper over the fact that I would soon be able to use _Aura_ my fantasies were grounded when I learnt that to start cultivating this technique I had to be infused with purified _Aura_ from another who knew how to use _Aura_ and then slowly circulate it and let it strengthen my body enough before I could absorb the _Aura_ from my environment. Without this external _Aura_ infusion I would be unable to sense _Natural_ _Aura_ and even if I could, trying to absorb it directly would cause severe injuries to my body maybe even death and remembering the expressions on my Parent's faces a while back stopped all thoughts to still try absorbing _Natural Aura_. Instead I decided to just go over the technique again and familiarize myself with the circulation routes and breathing method in case I somehow got a chance to cultivate in the future. As I was going over the first few steps on circulating _Aura_ and exploring the meridians within my body I was shocked to feel some sort of warm stream flowing in my veins...

I paused and slowly examined further, using the method described I found that there was a wisp of golden gas like substance in my meridians...this this was purified _Aura_ there was no mistaking it, it was just as described in the cultivation technique. With my hope reignited I began cultivating immediately, but I still cultivated slowly and carefully at first as failure would cause the infused Aura to go to waste and I would not be able to cultivate again until someone infused purified _Aura_ into me again, I had a lot of time now anyways as my Parents asked me to rest and recover for a full week, so I made good use of the time to cultivate and soon I had completely assimilated the infused _Aura_. As soon as I was allowed to leave the house again I rushed to the library and tried to dig up all the information that was there about _Aura_. After reading through a good number of books with any related topics I found out that users of _Aura_ today were extremely few in number and they were very secretive about their ways as they would not share any information easily, also their ways seemed to be quite different from those in the technique I had acquired, that is of course from just my observations of the descriptions of _Aura Guardians_. For instance their _Auras_ are all blue in colour but practising the ' _Aura Realm Cultivation'_ a different coloured _Aura_ may arise such as the _Gold Aura_ I was first infused with, another difference is that most _Aura Guardians_ need external tools such as high grade crystals to channel and use _Aura_ in the physical world but my technique needs no such thing and lastly the applications of _Aura_ were many in my technique but few in others, well maybe the last one was due to the records on _Aura Guardians_ being so vague and incomplete.

"What are you reading Sage?"- Heart suddenly asks. She had snuck up on me as I was reading in a quiet corner of the library.

"Oh, nothing much."- I casually reply, she had visited me every day in the past week and informing me of the happenings at school, Zubat's condition and other general topics. After all we had been through we had grown quite close and could be called the best of friends.

"Let me see. Let me see."- She pestered before finally snatching the book from me and giving it a once over before saying-" _Aura Guardian_ Guide, why are you interested in this? Do you want to be one when you grow up?"-She questioned closely through squinted eyes. 

"I don't really want to be an _Aura Guardian_ or anything, I was just a little curious."- I reply as I take the book back and continue reading.

"Uuu... Its sooo boring all you do is read in this place, no fun at all. You're so smart already so you don't need to study more, let's go to the forest to play."- She continues to annoy me. It was sort of understandable with what transpired in the Slowpoke well Mom would definitely not let me go off on any more adventures anytime soon and Heart was bound to get bored real soon without anyone to play with.*sigh* There was nothing I could do so I just let her continue complaining, I knew Mom would eventually lift the restrictions placed on me when she cools down a bit, it was just a matter of time. When I couldn't take her whining any more I suggested we go pay a visit to Zubat as it was all healed now and Officer Jenny would take it back to the Slowpoke well tomorrow.

So the days passed and my regular routine resumed with the addition of _Aura_ cultivation of course. Soon a year and a half had passed, though I had only just turned seven not long back the effects of my training in the forest were plainly visible, I had grown far stronger, even stronger than most adults and I was just at the level where I could purify and condense my own _Aura_ though not much of it, my progress might seem fast by comparison to the records imprinted in my memory but if anything my Innate Skill had a large part in it. Thanks to my skill _**[Insight]**_ I could understand the intricacies of the technique better and also slightly tune it for my own requirements, it also helped in careful observation and control of my _Aura_ so as to prevent backlashes;*sigh* if only I'd discovered the benefits of my skill in cultivating earlier then I would have been able to condense my _Aura_ six months ago. Surprisingly my condensed _Aura_ was a sparkling leaf green in colour unlike the standard blue or the gold one I was infused with.

Today I was enjoying a calm and relaxing walk through the forest with Charlie while taking my time to appreciate the wonderful scenery as today was one of those extremely rare days where Heart did not accompany me and I did not have to follow her rushed pace. I started proceeding deeper towards the core regions of the forest to cut the really high quality trees, business was doing really good now as I could venture to the forest depths safely to gather the finer quality wood so our _Charcoal_ quality naturally improved. I had just spotted a suitable tree to cut when I suddenly felt a strange fluctuation in the _Natural Aura_ , breathing and circulating in accordance with the cultivation method had become ingrained in me now and thanks to that my already keen perceptions of my surroundings improved by no small amount. I moved closer to the disturbance slowly, just as I rounded a large 10meter wide tree I saw a faint near transparent silhouette of something really small flying a dozen meters away from me, seeing this got me really excited as I could tell even from the faint outline that it was Celebi. As I was pondering whether to get closer or not Celebi vanished into thin air completely, I soon rushed to the spot I had last seen it and looked around in all directions. As I was looking around a sharp glint caught my eye, I went to check it out as it could be a rare item or even a regular one at least, trainers dropped a lot of items in here as the fumbled with their bags in the poor lighting while being chased by swarms of Beedrill or other Pokémon. When I got close I was shocked to see a _Poke ball_ , as to why I was shocked because of a _Poke ball_ was due to the fact that the one in front of me was no doubt the _GS Ball_ , it was just like the one in the anime- Gold and Silver in colour with the letters 'GS' engraved on it. I picked it up and examined it before putting it in my bag and then turned back to gather wood after one last hopeful look around the forest.

I left for home early as Mom had come by for her usual scheduled visits from work and I wanted to cherish all the time I got with her. At home when I set my bag down at the entrance to take off my shoes the _GS Ball_ rolled out and just as I reached out to grab it Mom arrived to greet me. She froze when she saw the _GS Ball_ and looked like she was going to scold me for bringing another one of "Old Man Kurt's" creations, she was quite incensed with me learning from him-

"It's not what you think; I found it in the forest. I was curious as it's different from any other _Poke ball_ I've seen."- I hurriedly try to explain myself as Mom picks up the _GS Ball_ and examines it herself.

"Hmm.."- She seems intrigued by it-"It's definitely out of the ordinary, let me examine it more thoroughly in my lab when I get back."- She said before turning around and walking towards the living room while still examining the _Poke ball_. She suddenly stopped after taking a few steps and turned her head towards me slowly-"You did good finding this Honey, now let's just keep this a secret between us, no need to get anyone else especially a certain old man involved in this."- Her voice became really eerie as she said that, I don't know why but the glint in her eyes as she said that gave me goose bumps. Guess I finally know why the _GS Ball_ despite being a Johto region event item in the game ended up in the Orange Islands; I really need to find a way to resolve this feud somehow.

That night just after I'd finished dinner with my family the door bell rang, someone was really impatient as they kept ringing it so I rushed to the door to answer it. I was greeted by an out of breath Heart at the door way-"Wha.."- Before I could even say anything she thrust flyer in my face and motioned me to read it quickly. I still urged her to come inside and rest a little first, as we were seated in the living room I went through the flyer. It was a flyer to advertise the upcoming annual Pokémon Summer Camp for kids organised by Professor Elm and Professor Oak. This was an annual event held every summer at a resort on the out skirts of Goldenrod city, almost every child over seven years of age aspiring to be a Pokémon trainer would attend this camp so needless to say that I was definitely interested. Just as I raised my head to say that I was more than willing to participate Heart hurriedly pointed towards the bottom right corner of the flyer, I suddenly froze; the last day to sign up and register was the day after tomorrow, that's what I get for being too busy with cultivation and not paying too much attention to the outside world.

"We need to go to Goldenrod city Pokémon Center to register but Grandpa said he was too busy and I don't know who else to ask to accompany me."- Heart said in a dejected manner. Just then Dad walked up behind me and peered over my head at the flyer-"It's that time of the year already huh... Pokémon Summer Camp, that sure brings back memories. Say I just so happen to have some errands to run at Goldenrod city so you kids are welcome to tag along if you like and we can get you registered for the camp as well."- Dad said. Heart and I looked at him like we'd seem our saviour. It was set, Heart would come over to my house at 8am tomorrow and we'd set off for Goldenrod city together with my Dad as he delivered a fresh batch of _Charcoal_ to the Goldenrod city Supermarket.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter-7**

The next day we got ready early and boarded the truck Dad had rented to transport our goods and set off, the journey was quite nice as the road on the outskirts of Ilex forest had a spectacular scene and we even got a breath taking view of the sea on one stretch of the road and there was something to be said about being able to camp in the woods overnight. We reached Goldenrod city late in the afternoon the following day and Heart and I ran straight to register for camp despite Dad yelling at us to go have lunch first. We were eventually dragged back as Dad threatened to not allow me to go to camp if I didn't have lunch first. We found a good restaurant that was close to both the Supermarket and the Pokémon Center and settled around an empty table outside under the patio. As Heart and I were impatiently waiting for the food to be served, we heard a loud shout from the street; soon I spotted a boy about my age running down the street from the direction of the Supermarket with his arms tightly holding something and being chased by a small crowd of people. Just then one of the people chasing him yelled-"Stop right there you little thief!" To which boy retorted-"Why should I stop? Come catch me if you can you old geezers." He had dark red hair and a really pale complexion; he looked back at the people chasing him with his reddish brown eyes displaying his arrogance before turning back to run in our direction. His goal must have been the narrow alley next to the restaurant as his pursuers would be hindered by the cramped space giving him the chance to pull the distance and completely evade them.

Suddenly Dad got up and blocked the little shoplifter's way in a bid to catch him. The red haired boy was quite incensed by this but he still decisively threw the items towards Dad and ducked to slide between his feet to the safety of the alley as Dad was too busy recovering the tossed items. Seeing this Heart and I hurriedly give chase, he seems to be quite agile as we find it difficult to catch up despite our best efforts, since he had the advantage of being familiar with the terrain it would not be easy to catch him so we reluctantly gave up after some time for fear of getting lost in the crisscrossing maze of alleys. As we turned to leave I spotted the boy from a distance as he sneered at us before mocking us-"Giving up so soon, why don't you go back crying to your Mommies and Daddies like the bunch cry-babies you are?" Heart nearly erupted in rage and was about to continue giving chase but I held her back and reminded her of our original purpose in the city which was to register for camp and that we might miss it if we waste more time here. I then walked back with a reluctant Heart as we retraced our way back to the restaurant.

Once we got back I saw Dad was chatting with one of the people who were originally chasing the red haired boy, when Dad spotted us he hurriedly called us over to introduce us. His name was Jacob and he was a friend of Dad's, in fact he was the one responsible for handling business with us here in the Goldenrod city Supermarket. He was not really surprised when he learnt that we were unable to catch the thief, it seemed as though they had more than one run-in. "Well Mason I best be off, I don't want to hold you up any longer, you can collect your payment in the evening. Bring your kid and wife to the store once in a while; I'll give you guys a good discount."- Jacob said before leaving.

We finally head to the Pokémon center after lunch to register for the summer camp. At the Pokémon Center I first separate from Heart who goes toward the registration desk, I'd promised Mom to call her at the first opportunity so I left towards the video phones next to the counter first. Meanwhile on the other side Heart had run into the red haired boy at the registration desk again; "I'm sorry but I simply cannot allow you to register for the summer camp if you don't have the permission of your Parents or Guardian."- Nurse Joy was telling him, as Heart approached to register herself.

"*Humph* well of course such naughty boys will not be allowed to attend camp."-Heart scoffed at him.

"Well if it isn't the little cry-baby, didn't have enough last time?"- The boy turned around and mocked her. It looked like a fight was going to break out anytime now.

As I was talking to Mom I heard loud noises, it seemed as though a fight had broken out and from the voices I heard it was obvious that Heart was a part of it. I turned back only to see that Heart and the red haired boy from before were fighting. They were eventually pushed apart by Dad as he tried to calm them before I could step in. "What's going on?" -Mom enquired.

"Heart and another boy just had a little fight is all, no one was hurt. Its all resolved now."- I reply back.

"Resolved, nothing is resolved unless this little thief apologises to me."- Heart exclaimed loudly upon hearing me.

"Why should I apologise to you? Hey, you better keep your little girlfriend under control now."- The boy said to us.

"..."- I was shocked speechless by his words but Heart apparently wasn't-"You you whose girlfriend am I, you're nothing but a thief and a bully its no wonder your parents don't let you go the Pokémon summer camp."- She said in her rage. That seemed to really tick him off as he scoffed and turned to leave.

"Hey maybe I can talk to your Parents and convince them to let you attend."- I offer to help as I believed his mean attitude caused him to have no friends and he just wanted a chance to mingle with new people and Pokémon.

"*Humpf* Stop being a goody-goody and mind your own business, but I would like to see how you convince my _Parents_ though hahaha..."- He walked away while laughing.

"What's with that kid?"-Dad wondered aloud.

"Please don't be put out with him too much Soul is actually a sweet boy deep down but he has a very tough time adjusting in the orphanage."- Nurse Joy told us.

"Orphanage... so that means he..."-I trail off.

Nurse Joy eventually told us more about him –"His Mother passed away even before he was one year old and no one knows who his father was. He was bullied quite a bit by the other kids and he had recently been involved with some street gangs and thugs which landed him in a heap of trouble with the authorities, but though he is now into stealing and other petty crimes I've seen him take the trouble to help out some random people and Pokémon on the streets now and then. In fact after questioning him a bit myself and a little investigation from Officer Jenney I found that all the things he's stolen were mostly because he was forced to by a local gang leader called Tressler, in fact some of the things he has stolen he takes a portion and sneaks it into the Orphanage store room so they can use it but everyone still looks at him that way. It really breaks my heart." Nurse Joy was really desperate to convince her of his true character.

I had a deep look in my eyes as I thought back. This sort of scenario wasn't really foreign to me as I was an orphan myself in my past life; I had seen some orphans turn to the life of crime or act mean as a form of defence, once on this path they would find it very hard to get off it.

After listening to Nurse Joy even Heart didn't have much to say, Dad also had a pensive look. He eventually told us to go ahead and register as he had some things to discuss with Mom. We eventually finished registering and were returning to the reception area where Dad had just finished his conversation with Mom, he still had a very strange look in his eyes as if he was deep in thought. When I got around to asking him what was bothering him he said it was nothing, he still had something on his mind apparently. He then released Charlie and Charlotte from their _Poke balls_ and told Heart and I that we could take them out to go sightseeing around town till 6 in the evening before meeting back at the Pokémon center while he ran a few more errands. I found Dad's behaviour to be getting stranger by the minute but before I could dig any further into the matter Heart yanked me out the door while loudly declaring all the places she wanted to see.

So with Charlie and Charlotte acting as our chaperones we explored all the landmarks in Goldenrod City, we saw the towering Radio station, the high speed inter-region train station and we even got to play a few games at the game corner which was actually separated into two sections- one for adults which had slot machines and other casino like attractions and the other a kids section filled with arcade games. We spent quite a bit of time in the arcade; Heart wouldn't give up until we got enough points to exchange for a Pikachu _Poke doll_. Finally we went to the Supermarket, that place was amazing it had almost every product for sale from daily necessities and groceries to sporting goods; it even had a furniture department. I was especially attracted to the sale on Trainer journey supplies and kits; it had an amazing range of products that any new trainer starting on his journey could ever ask for. For starters there were _Item bags_ of various designs such as a backpack, sling bag or even a fanny pack and purse type available in various colours, these bags had special properties as they could contain lot more than their size let on and still managed to be light enough to carry, there were separate compartments for storage of different classifications of items much like in the game so all items could be easily carried in it including medicines, berries and herbs, key items (yes including the bike), food supplies and even a miscellaneous section to carry your camping equipment and various other things you might need. The prices for the bag got higher as the storage capacity increased, with what I'd saved up currently I could just about buy the cheapest bag with roughly half a cubic meter space in each compartment while still having some money to spare for the other supplies. I realised that I had to step up my game if I wanted the good stuff so I went around making a mental list of all the stuff I'd need and recording their prices. I needed a good bag, a decent camping set, a _Pokenav_ with all features like maps, radio and voice- video calling, a basic kit of medicines, key items like a bike and even a good fishing rod with a set of baits. The final price though large was not something I was afraid of not being able to afford even if the prices rose eventually, I was confident that I could save up the money and I still had a few ideas I wanted to execute. Heart was getting bored through it all until I convinced her of the importance of planning this list out if we wanted to go on our own journey one day, needless to say she was still more interested in the really gaudy and flashy stuff than the more functional and practical ones.

When we returned to the Pokémon center by the appointed time I was surprised to see that Dad was not alone, the red haired boy we met earlier in the day was with him.

"What are you doing here? Go bother someone else."-Heart started off as soon as he was in her sights.

"Believe me; I don't want to be associated with you either."-the boy retorted back.

Dad soon tried to calm everyone as he started making introductions-" Now now kids no fighting. Let me introduce you to each other, Sage say hello to your new brother Soul Reese."

"..."-Both Heart and I stared blankly for a while before my gaze went to the luggage bags placed just behind the two.

"Dad are we... did you adopt him."- I slowly asked as I was very much taken by surprise.

"Yeah, your Mom and I had quite a lengthy discussion about it. You don't have to worry all the formalities are already finished, I even got Soul signed up for the summer camp so you can all get to know each other faster."-Dad replied happily.

"Who wants to get to know him? *humpf*"-Heart scoffed with puffed up cheeks and said.

"..."- I looked at both Heart and Soul for a moment; wait Heart and Soul wow that is a strange coincidence. I eventually went forward to shake his hand and introduce myself formally-"Hi, my name is Sage Peirce nice to meet you."

"..."- He just looks at me strangely for a while before he completely ignores me and moving on to ask my Dad- "So, were do we go now that I got all my stuff?"

"We'll have to stay in the city tonight as its getting really late, Jacob has arranged a place for us to rest the night. We better get going and rest up, our ride leaves at the crack of dawn and it would not be good if we missed it because we were too tired now would it."- Dad said to us before he ushered us on.

...

That night after dinner as I was helping Dad clear the dishes- "So, what suddenly brought the whole adoption thing on?"-I enquire.

"Oh, you're not upset now are you?"- Dad threw another question at me instead.

"Not in the slightest. In fact I'm also kind of happy that I now have a brother. I just want to know your reason."- I reply back.

"Well to say that it was just this or that... hmm... well there were a lot of reasons actually. To be frank your Mother and I were discussing if we should... you know expand the family. Don't give me that face, well anyway we have a big house, we're economically sound and also frankly speaking you could do with more friends your age. Well anyway when I went to the Orphanage I was surprised to see that Soul was not all that popular with the care takers but a lot of the little kids still stuck close to him, it was really funny to see how he kept trying to shoo them away half heartedly only to fail. I could see that he was a really good kid, just a bit misunderstood. Besides adoption is good in and of itself, so yeah there were a lot of reasons to go forward with it and frankly there was simply no reason not to."- Dad explained.

"..."- I had a blank look for a while as I took everything in.

"Now I need you to do something for me Sage."- Dad tells me as he has a serious look in his eyes-"You are now a big brother and I need you to be more responsible and look out for your little brother Soul you hear me, make him feel welcome and help him get adjusted. You can do that can't you?"- I nod as he gives me a deep look.

After I completed my chores I went to the bed room I now shared with Soul. I knocked on the door before entering (you kind of get accustomed to these sort of habits easily when you share a room with other people, no one liked to walk in while their roommate was changing or something back at St. Michael's), I saw Soul sitting on his bed turn to face me so I gave a simple greeting-"Hey." And proceed to sort out my things before heading off to bed so I don't forget anything in a hurry tomorrow.

"I don't need your pity."- I suddenly hear from behind me.

I turn away from my bag and look at Soul and say-"I don't pity you, and neither do my parents. You heard it yourself when you were listening in on my conversation with Dad, they didn't adopt you out of pity but they actually took a liking to you Lil Bro."

"You... I... I wasn't eavesdropping or anything you were just talking really loud and I just happen to walk by."-He retorts in a rush but I can see that he is a little red in the face, fufufu it seems as though he's a little embarrassed by what I said earlier about him not being adopted out of pity.

"OK whatever you say Little Brother no one was blaming you anyway."- I tease him a bit more.

"Who's your little brother, don't call me that."-He seems really quick to anger.

"Fine then what do I call you?"- I ask casually as I turn back to my task of sorting out the _Poke balls_ I asked Dad to buy for me.

"Just call me Soul. What are you going to do with all those _Poke balls_ though; I thought that they wouldn't sell them to kids below ten?"- Soul asks with a longing look in his eyes.

"Here.."- I throw him a _Timer Ball_ before continuing-"I asked Dad to buy them for me, I don't intend to use them to catch Pokémon though as I have something I want to try with them. You could say that its some kind of experiment." I was quite busy sorting out all the different types of _Poke balls_ - _Luxury Balls, Timer Balls, Quick Balls, Dusk Balls, Net Balls, etc._ I'd worked with _Poke balls_ produced from _Apricorns_ with Kurt so I had some knowledge in this field and it had now birthed a crazy idea that I had to try.

"You, experimenting on _Poke balls_ , ha, give me a break. What would a kid know about _Poke ball_ technology?"- Soul jeers at me.

"Well Heart's Grandfather is the famous Mr. Kurt who is known for producing fine _Poke balls_ out of _Apricorns_ and I've been his apprentice for the last couple of years, so yeah I know a thing or two about _Poke balls_. In fact if you want some custom made _Poke balls_ you could always ask me as I can make them myself now."- I reply back. I wasn't really bragging or anything as I could really make _Poke balls_ from _Apricorns_ now, much to Kurt's grumbling he couldn't deny the fact that I was a really good helper. Mom had kind of forgiven me now as well as I'd 'managed to steal that old man's secret technique', well at least that's what she said. Anyway I was researching if I could combine the effects of different _Poke balls_ and I'd already succeeded in combining the effects of two different _Apricorns_ when making a _Poke ball,_ now I wanted to check if I could make hybrids with the ones sold in the market, granted my hybrid ones did not boost a single attribute as high as regular ones but with two effects both reduced by not more than 30% it was pretty good.

"..."-Soul looks at me strangely.

"Are you regretting being mean to Heart now, don't worry too much things will smooth out eventually. Can I have that _Timer Ball_ back now?"- Me.

"..."-Soul looks at me for a while more before tossing the _Timer Ball_ back to me and then said- "Would you really give me some custom _Poke balls_?"- He asks in a mocking manner but I can still feel a sort of eagerness in his voice.

"Sure, you're my Lil Bro after all."- I tease him a bit. To which he retorts with his usual scoff of who's your little brother. I eventually get him to open up more and we spend quite a bit of time talking, its mostly me giving him a rundown of life back home and trying to get him to accept and even look forward to our new life(hey it would be new to me as well seeing as I now have a little brother). He seems to be really interested in Pokémon as well (no surprise there) and he seems to be really excited about my daily excursions into the Ilex Forest with Dad. So yeah we're up talking for so long that Dad eventually had to come up and tell us to go to sleep. I sort of had a feeling that we would all get along great as I closed my eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: For anyone that's still confused.

Charlie= male Farfetche'd Charlotte=female Farfetche'd Tess=female Poliwhirl Jack=male Cloyster Chester= Gyarados

 **Chapter-8**

The morning of our departure was rushed as expected. Dad was hysterical as he rushed everyone to get ready faster all the while complaining that we would miss the caravan back to Azalea Town. The journey back was sort of awkward as Heart and Soul were like fire and water and refusing to get along with each other but they both still tried to pull me into their side. It wasn't easy being the middle man and staying neutral, thinking about what the future would hold for me if things didn't change made me shudder.

We dropped Heart off at her place and headed to our house. We were surprised to find that the house was neater than we expected it to be, I knew Mom wasn't all that much conscious of having a clean environment from the couple of times I'd seen her lab in the background of our video calls but she had seemingly tried her best in order to welcome Soul into the family. We threw a small party at home that evening to welcome him into the family and although he put up the image of being completely indifferent to everything I saw the occasional smile break out on his face when he thought no one was looking. There was one more surprise as Mom said she was able to apply to work from home till the end of this summer since there wasn't anything critical that needed her personal attention. Mostly I think she tried so hard in order to help Soul adjust into the family.

Over the next couple of days, Soul adjusted to his new surroundings really quickly, even the transfer procedure to enter him into the same class as me went without a hitch. I guess it was to be expected seeing as he had a _Unique_ _Innate Skill_ called _ **[Flow]**_. Looking at this skill let me appreciate how diverse they were, its effects were-

High adaptability of user (stats and physical ability quickly readjust as per environment).

High resistance to toxins and other substances that negatively affect the body.

 _Psyche Stream_ \- State of mind has severe impact on physical body, agitation and similar emotions result in 30% increase of physical strength capabilities, serenity and similar emotions offers 30% increase in cognitive capacity, fright, worry and other emotions offers 30% increase in agility and reflexes.

Its effects in a Pokémon battle include-

Your Pokémon are 50% less likely to be affected by status conditions due to high resistance.

Your Pokémon will optimise stats to best counter your opponents and gain a 10% all-round boost from weather and terrain changes irrespective of typing also Pokémon take no damage from weather and terrain changes.

All in all a very powerful skill that had many applications. He was sort of uncomfortable when he heard of my skill especially when I mentioned the effects of _Prying Eye_ but he got around to it really fast. This made me realise once again how broken my skill was, nobody liked it when their secrets were seen through.

Needless to say that he joined in on our daily routine into the forest much to the disapproval of Heart but she gave out in the end. Dad was worried over the next couple of weeks and didn't let us wander too far like usual for the benefit of Soul. At first I found Soul's general interaction with Pokémon to be a little harsh, he could be quite cruel at times especially to the weak ones. Seeing this Dad and I had a feeling that his experience with thugs out on the streets had a big influence on him so we tried our best to help him get over that phase. My wild Pokémon friends also understood and didn't really retaliate against him too violently. One night about ten days after he joined our family I asked him why his attitude tended to be nasty at times to which his reply was-

"There's no right or wrong; only the strong and the weak, if you're weak then you have no right to complain about whether something is unfair."- With a statement like that I knew it would be difficult. So over the next few days I took it upon myself to show him that kindness could in itself give rise to great strength and that it was better to fight with the aim to be able to look after your loved ones than to fight with rage and hate. Everything said and done he still didn't seem all that convinced even after I showed him that being polite and caring can also let you get closer to more People and Pokémon and that can give you a lot of strength and you need not be alone all the time either. Finally one evening in our back yard I decided to use his logic against him, I asked Dad to lend me his Pokémon so I could have a battle with Soul; needless to say he lost miserably. Even when he said it was Charlotte's fault for being too weak and proceeded to borrow Mom's Pokémon he still lost, even Chester couldn't save him from his losing streak.

When he seemed lost on what to say I told him-"Going by what you said I am right since I am strong, so it stands to reason that what I've been trying to tell you all along is also right whereas you are wrong. You were in the wrong when you said it was ok to be cruel to those who are weak. You were wrong when you said the weak were trash and should be abandoned." When I got to there, he seemingly couldn't take it anymore and ran off. I was left there with a blank expression wondering if maybe I was too harsh."Sage..."- I heard an ominous voice as Mom was going to chew me out any moment now but Dad hurriedly cut us short saying that the important thing right now was to find and bring Soul back safely. So we gave some _Medicines_ to the Pokémon and restored their health and have them aid our search.

We discovered traces of him leading into the forest which caused Mom to panic all the more and throw one more glare at me before we decided to split up so we could cover more ground. Dad sent Charlie to scout by air while Tess accompanied me and Mom and Dad each left with Jack and Charlotte respectively. As I moved through the forest I tried to get some help from some of the wild Pokémon.

Meanwhile in some other remote part of the forest Soul was rushing forward blindly. His eyes were sort of red and there were some dried up tear tracks on his cheeks. He kept muttering to himself-"They're all the same, every last one of them... Just picking on the weak. If you're not strong you're nothing." He angrily kicked a stone on the ground with all his might and it flew straight up into a tree. Moments later the leaves of the tree began to shake violently and a swarm of Beedrill came rushing at Soul.

Soul only paused for a moment before he frantically ran in the opposite direction cursing his luck. It didn't take him long to realise that he was lost in the forest with no one to help him. The Beedrill were quickly catching up to him, how fast do you expect a normal 7 year old to run anyway. He quickly changed direction just as a Beedrill dove at him.

Fortunately on his newly selected path one of the Caterpie I was friendly with was roused from its sleep and spotted him from up on its perch. Seeing Soul in danger it roused some of its other friends from nearby and rushed to intercept Soul and Beedrill. All in all Caterpie gathered a bunch of its friends which included a few more Caterpie, some Paras and an Oddish, they soon picked up the pace when they discovered that Soul was heading straight for a cliff concealed behind some shrubs. All the Caterpie hurriedly used _String Shot_ in a bid to slow the Beedrill and it sort of worked as they were slowed by the silk tangled around the trees like a web but they were persistent in their chase, the Paras and Oddish used _Sleep Powder_ as soon as they got in range but Soul in his panic didn't notice soon enough to stop and jumped over the shrubs. Looking out over the edge with nothing to break his fall Soul nearly passed out but no sooner had he fallen down more than a dozen metres that he found his descent brought to a sudden halt thanks to a bunch of sticky silk strands that had caught him. When he calmed down enough to look up he was shocked to see that nearly half a dozen Caterpie were at the edge of the cliff and had used _String Shot_ to catch him.

Eventually with the help of the Paras and Oddish combined, the Caterpies managed to hoist Soul up to safety. The Caterpie that first spotted him slowly approached him to check if he was alright, Soul although pretty shaken up and with a few bruises here and there was alright. The Caterpie gently nuzzled up to his arm to show that it was glad it made it in time. Soul was momentarily shocked as he stared at Caterpie and its friends, they were all Pokémon he used to consider as weak and trashy but now they had held off a swarm of Beedrill and saved him, he slowly reached out his hand and started stroking the Caterpie next to his arm. The others seeing this all approached closer as well and Soul in a sort of lost manner started to gently pat and stroke all of them, suddenly what Sage had said to him and all the interactions Heart, Sage and his new Parents had with Pokémon came to mind and he started to re-evaluate himself on his behaviour and approach.

After some time Caterpie moved away from him and started to make some gestures as if asking Soul to follow it. Soul snapped out of his contemplations and decided to follow; he was soon led to a well trodden path and was eventually spotted by Charlie. It was only a matter of time before the whole family arrived at his location. Mom rushed up to him as soon as she spotted him and started fussing over his dishevelled state as she started to pat the dust off his clothes and picking at the leaves and brambles stuck in his hair, Dad heaved a sigh of relief.

"You really had all of us worried sick. I'm really sorry about what happened before... and you know if there is any way I can make it up to you just let me know."- I apologise as I was feeling really guilty. Anyway you look at it, it was my fault pushing Soul too hard in the first place that got us into this mess so I really wanted to make it up to the guy, maybe I could give him some of my custom made _Poke balls_ later on or something.

"I was so worried, its good that you're safe... its good that we found you so soon."- Mom kept fussing over him and he was starting to panic again for a completely differently reason as he was clearly not used to this sort of treatment.

"Kid you had all of us really worried there, don't you ever do something like that ever again. We don't even let Sage wander about alone in here especially at this hour, its a miracle that we found you before something bad happened."- Dad says in a half relived- half admonishing tone.

"We...Well i-it was all thanks to these guys that I was safe."- Soul points to the Wild Pokémon clustered close by. Upon further questioning he recounts the entire series of events that transpired right from where he was chased by the Beedrill and lost his was to how those Pokémon by his side rescued him and brought him to this path safely.

Mom was having fits when Soul mentioned being chased by the swarm of Beedrill and nearly falling off a cliff. That was the absolute last straw, both Soul and I were grounded with no desserts for the rest of the week and Mom was even reconsidering letting us go to Pokémon Summer Camp.

Dad eventually calmed her down and said we should all head home first. Before we left though I was surprised to see Soul bend down and pet all the Pokémon that helped him, my Parents and I watched as he sincerely thanked them before standing up and saying goodbye to them as he left with us.

"..."-I was staring hard at Soul as his recent behaviour really stunned me.

"What are you staring at?"- Soul eventually snapped at me.

"Nothing, its just, are you really Soul Reese, the one I remember would in no way treat Pokémon like that especially the " _weaker trashy"_ ones."- I muttered.

"*humpf* Don't call them weak and they are definitely not trashy Pokémon. In fact there are no weak Pokémon they are all amazing."- He retorts back angrily, it seems that I hit a nerve there when I called those Pokémon back there weak and trashy.

"... Who are you and what have you done to Soul? He must still be lost in the forest we need to go save him."- I started joking and teasing him but very soon *smack*. Charlotte had smacked me on the head with her stick and Mom was giving me a glare. I soon piped up and hung my head down afraid to meet her gaze.

*snort* Soul let out a soft snicker at what just happened but Mom soon turned her glare at him before saying-"Don't think you're not at fault here young man, although it was Sage who was initially hard on you, it was entirely your fault for running into the forest and acting reckless causing you to be in danger. When we get home don't expect to get off scott-free." Soul also hung his head and didn't dare make a sound while being reprimanded.

As we head back in a solemn manner Mom and Dad exchange a quick and quite exchange as they are both relived and happy. Although things did get really dangerous at one point but everyone was safe and sound now and it seemed as though both Soul and Sage would get along better from now on. Well they were right as at that moment Soul and I raised our heads slightly and exchanged a glance out of the corner of our eyes and we sort of knew that we had each gained a sort of acceptance and friendship with each other at that very moment.

After we got home and Soul was cleaned and bandaged up we got an earful just as expected, Mom even threatened us that we would not be allowed to go to camp if our behaviour over the next couple of weeks didn't improve. The both of us hurriedly nodded before we were sent off to bed for the night.

In our shared room-"..."-Soul hesitates for a while not knowing what to say.

"*sigh* Look about what happened earlier, I really am sorry about pushing my ideals onto you like that. Each person has their own opinions and I should have been more considerate, its just that I didn't like the way you treated some of my friends in the forest, well truth be told I even wanted you all to kind of get along together you know."- I start off trying to explain why I did what I did.

"Its ok, well I sort of understand what you meant now more than ever. I.. I know that I can seem difficult at times and I'm also sorry for being so rude and mean before."- Even he gave a nervous apology which made me really happy. I decided to tease him just a bit more-"So are you going to apologise to Heart as well?"

"*snort* Keep dreaming."- Soul retorted while throwing a mock punch at my shoulder. I was really starting to like having Soul as a little brother.

"So... a-about Pokémon and the battle earlier... you mentioned something about bonding with friendship...or care or something."-He starts enquiring about raising and training Pokémon. So we sit down on our respective beds and have a lengthy discussion. Its mostly me telling him some of the important things I had learnt from the library and some Pokémon health care tips I picked up from Nurse Joy. His earlier ideology about Pokémon Trainers had been only the pursuit of strong Pokémon with minimal training and care from the trainer's side; sort of like the attitude of that jerk Trainer in season 1 of Pokémon who abandons his Charmander or that other one in the Black and White series who abandons his Tepig, both were quick to abandon their partners when they were weak instead of raising and strengthening them but later shamelessly came back to retrieve them when they grew stronger. I really hated such Trainers.

I also share my views on general attitude that comes to my mind when someone mentions an accomplished Pokémon Trainer-"Well its my belief that there are no useless Pokémon just incompetent Trainers, being a great and famous trainer isn't just about catching a whole bunch of Pokémon and especially not about only catching and battling with strong Pokémon. A real Pokémon Trainer has to do exactly as the name implies train the Pokémon, bring out the best of that Pokémon and raise it with care. Each and every Pokémon is different and has different requirements and I want to be the kind of trainer that is capable of bringing out the best out of any Pokémon."- As I finish my dramatic monolog I am left staring at a dumbfounded Soul who is staring at me with his mouth open a little...

"*pfft* hahaha... that is really a big goal you have set for yourself there, I wish you the best of luck."- He starts mocking me a few seconds after I finish. I throw my pillow at his face.

"Well its getting really late so lets get some sleep."- I say as I reach for my blanket.

"One last thing... about the wild Pokémon in the Ilex Forest how... how did you get so friendly with them a-and how can I get –get to know them better as well?"- he asks nervously as he hands my pillow back to me.

"You need to be calm and patient when dealing with Pokémon in the wild, you also need to be sincere and not try to take advantage of them. By the way Bug and Grass type Pokémon like sweet things so I recommend giving them some _Berries_ coated in _Syrup_."- I answer back. I could guess that that last question was especially for him to find a way to genuinely make friends with them and also find a way to thank those Pokémon that helped him out today so I gave him an honest reply. He seemed to slowly digest what I just said, so I told him I would help him prepare some snacks to feed the wild Pokémon tomorrow before wishing him good night and turning off the lights.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter-9**

The next couple of weeks passed without any major incident and the summer vacations had officially begun. Soul's attitude was now much better; he was nicer to other People and Pokémon, well as nice as Soul can be anyway.

"Would you keep up, you're really slowing us down you know. Hey Sage, why does she always tag along anyway?"- Soul mocks Heart and then enquires with me, *sigh* his relationship with Heart hasn't really improved much.

"Oh and exactly who are you to be throwing questions like that around, you are a newbie in our group at best. If I am to be honest even calling you an outsider is not outrageous and you dare throw questions at your seniors like that. Like I thought you are just a ruffian."-Heart calls from behind us. Their relationship can even be said to have gotten worse.

We were currently exploring in the forest and decided to have a small race to the meeting spot in a clearing up ahead and Heart was having a hard time catching up to us. In our group since I was cultivating _Aura_ my physique was the best among us and my Innate Skill also provided a small boost, Soul was very experienced in this sort of thing, sort of like a mini parkour ninja as he built up the skill during his shoplifting days (purely considering skill and grace he was the best of us) and needless to say his Skill played a big role. It was just that Heart although being a lot more fit as compared to other kids her age couldn't quite keep up with us despite her Skill granting her a significant bonus as well.

"Heart, don't take this the wrong way or anything but I've always told you that you need to exercise more, see even Soul is doing better than you, if you improve a bit I'm sure you can best him."- I try to encourage her. She usually used to fool around a lot before and neglect her own training, I mean sure she was fit but she never really saw the need to go the extra mile and explore. Given her ability _**[Passion]**_ she was sure to improve by leaps and bounds if she tried to.

"*Humpf* Just you wait, not just that red haired monkey thief I'll even beat you."- Heart retorts while puffing her cheeks as we make it to the clearing.

"Hahaha."- I laugh. Heart throws a fierce glare at me and I hastily flatter her and try to calm her, but deep down I know that she can pull off what she said earlier. She would usually while away time by fooling around and lazing about a lot, not to mention her habit of excessive snacking on junk foods but she finally seemed to be ready to shed that image of hers just to beat us. I wasn't sure if I should be happy for her new approach or dread the day she'd leave us in her dust.

"Quit fooling around you two, we have to gather more wood today since we'll be at camp the following week."-Soul begins to lecture us, he's come a long way since we first met as he now displays a really earnest attitude to help around the house as well as greatly improved his relations with Pokémon and People; well at least those close to the family. Heart's change in attitude was also largely influenced by him as she didn't really care to compete with me too much before but couldn't bear to lose to him now. Soul's attitude even rubbed off on me a bit as I don't really want to be left behind.

Well with Heart and Poki's help Charlie, Charlotte, Soul and I set off gathering wood and would have continued keeping our terrifying pace till late in the afternoon as well if Dad hadn't chased us away telling us to head home early in order to pack and prepare for camp as we'd set of tomorrow morning. We were about to race back but looking at Heart's face that looked on the verge of tearing up I suggested that we slowly walk back so we end up having a lengthy discussion about the upcoming camp along the way.

The venue for the Pokémon Summer camp is Greenfield, acclaimed as the most scenic location in all of Johto due to its marvellous landscape of small hills covered in meadows and a river system running through the entire place. Location wise it is located between Azalea Town and Goldenrod City but somewhat outside the Ilex Forest, to its south west to be precise. The shortest route between Azalea and Goldenrod is no doubt through the Ilex Forest as it is an almost straight path running northwest-southeast and can be traversed in a day of travel by car, but due to the dangers of wild Pokémon some choose to travel through Greenfield and curve around the Ilex Forest although it adds an extra of two days to the travel. The camp is held by Professor Elm's lab and sponsored by the Hale family who own a mansion at Greenfield and Mr. Pokémon from Cherrygrove City. Young boys and girls from all over the region who aspire to be a great Pokémon Master make it a point to participate in the camp at least once so we were extremely excited.

After packing we head to bed for the night early but Soul and I hardly got any sleep as we were way too excited, we still managed to get up early and full of vigour. After freshening up we head to the bus-stop by the Pokémon Center where the bus carrying the kids to camp will make a stop at 9:00 am. Heart was already waiting for us by the time we arrived and much to Mom's great displeasure Kurt was there as well. We endured a few moments of awkward silence occasionally making small talk with some of our other friends from school also heading to camp before the bus arrived; it was packed with other kids who had boarded before us. The three of us quickly got on board and stored away our luggage in the overhead cabinet with the help of an attendant before finding our seats. As we looked out the window to wave goodbye to our families we saw a strange scene; Mom and Kurt were trying to outdo each other in bidding us farewell. It was funny and embarrassing looking at how they tried to wave faster and scream goodbye louder than each other as the parents of our classmates from school stared at the ongoing show, sometimes I just wish that they'd act their age.

It was a long journey to the camp with a few more stops along the way to pick up more kids. The bus was packed within two hours and the journey was made enjoyable by all the new kids we got to meet. Thankfully the management had scheduled appropriate rest stops along the way or else the kids on board would find it unbearable, the pit stop we had in the afternoon for lunch was truly amazing as we had entered the Greenfield region and true to its reputation it was simply beautiful. Many kids even forgot that we were rushing to reach camp by sun down as they started to spread out through the meadows to play, thankfully the attendants rallied everyone together and restored order before any mishaps occurred. After a hearty meal my exhaustion from last night's lack of sleep finally kicked in and I fell asleep not too long after taking my seat. By the time I was roused from my slumber the sun was about to set and I could see almost all the other kids slowly rousing themselves from dreamland (looks like I wasn't the only one who had a good nap after lunch). Not long after, an attendant stood at the front of the aisle and informed us that we'd arrive at the camp venue in less than half an hour and true to his words I could see the cabins and other buildings off in the distance through the window on my left.

When we all got down from the bus with our luggage we were asked to line up in front of the office building to mark our attendance; as we stood in line and waited an attendant started going over the rules and guidelines for everyone's benefit and we also received some basic information about the layout of the camp. When it was finally my turn at the counter I got a pamphlet with the itinerary for the week's events printed on one side with the map of the campus on the other, I was also given a copy of the keys for my dorm. Kids were divided four to a dorm room and ten rooms to a cabin, with boys and girls separated into separate cabin; there were eight cabins in all so that meant a total capacity of 320 kids. I know that that number wasn't all that big and there couldn't only be that many kids in the entire Johto region who wished to attend the camp so I was curious, I later found out that the camp would be held in batches over the entire summer vacations, each time accommodating kids from different towns and cities of the region. When everyone had marked their attendance we were told to disperse to our rooms and freshen up for dinner. They also told us to rest early as tomorrow camp would officially begin.

Sharing the room with me was of course Soul since we were next to each other in the line as well as a short blonde kid with spiky hair and plump guy with curly black hair, they introduced themselves Damian Grey from Goldenrod City and Blake Barton from Violet city respectively. We introduced ourselves as well and started to get into a conversation about all the activities listed in the itinerary and which one we were looking forward to the most, the conversation lasted all the way from our dorm as we settled down, to the cafeteria where dinner would be served.

We met up with Heart and her dorm mates Jill Jones of Violet city, Mary Thompson and Clair Foster from Goldenrod city at the cafeteria and we all gathered at one table with food laden trays. Mary seemed to be quite the gullible type and seemed to swallow any information given to her without raising any questions as she listened to Jill who apparently liked to gossip a lot, Clair was quiet and aloof only responding if spoken to. As we were all getting to know each other better I got side tracked by what Jill was saying-"You know I saw on the notice board at the main office that three lucky people would get a reservation for the Johto starters."

"Are you serious?"- I ask Jill. It has to be understood that back in the Pokémon game of my world you could only get starters from Professors in the lab or through special events and they weren't available in the wild, but here you could get them from both places the only problem was that their quantities were few so they couldn't be given to everyone who aspired to be a trainer. Based on statistics only one in every hundred trainers would receive the region starter Pokémon from the lab, the rest would request a family member or the local Pokémon Center for their first Pokémon, they would then catch a basic un-evolved Pokémon from the nearby locality for the new trainer. Just from this it could be seen that a lot of kids preferred to receive their starters from the lab as 7 out of 10 times wild Pokémon caught locally were much weaker in the initial phases and one would have to put in more effort to succeed as a trainer, in addition to this there were additional benefits as the _Pokedex_ would be provided free of cost along with a bonus starter pack of _Medicines_ and assorted _Items_ for beginners. There was also the intangible but still present advantage of being acquainted with the Professors so you could get personal advice and news on certain exclusive events occurring in the region occasionally. So all in all everyone aspired to obtain those few rare spots to get the region starters from the lab, it looked like camp would be very interesting.

After dinner I decided to go to the main office to check out the notice board and see for myself if the rumours about being able to get starters were true. Soul and Heart followed me into the office and there it was on the notice board; a bright poster announcing a raffle based on ones camp registration numbers with the three winners being able to get the starters when they come of age.

"I really hope to win and get a super cute Chikorita for myself."- Heart exclaims with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"*snort* Looks like someone's already made their choice on their starter. Here's some advice kid; don't count your Pidgy before they hatch."- Soul mocks her.

"Who do you think you are to lecture me? Besides you're the one amongst the three of us who needs the most help, let me tell you this even if I don't get a starter and you do I'd still be able to wipe the floor with you in a battle."-Heart retorts harshly, Soul always felt bad because he would often lose to us when we had mock battles but it wasn't his fault as he was new to this, anyway it sort of became a sore spot for him no matter how much I consoled him that he was making massive progress (which was true).

"That's enough you two, Soul could you not tease Heart for a few minutes at a stretch and Heart you don't need to be so mean seeing as you were no better when you first started battling. *sigh* Anyway what would your choice for a starter be Soul."- I try to douse the kindle that was about to explode into a raging inferno any moment.

"... I'd pick Cyndaquil so that I could thoroughly roast my opponents."- Soul responds after some time while taking a quick glance at Heart's reaction.

"Whatever, which one would you pick Sage?"- Heart chose to ignore his reply and asked me what my choice would be.

"Well... I always liked Totodile, like how it looks so playful and mischievous. It has so much energy I'm sure I'd be a good partner."- I answer back. I was surprised we all had different preferences.

As we head back in the direction of our dorms I start to wonder what my own journey would be like while I watch Soul and Heart continue to bicker in front of me. I wonder if it'd be just me and my Pokémon or if I'd have other human companions to enjoy the road with, it would be nice to have some human companions as well. Suddenly it becomes clear to me, I don't know why I was hesitating in the first place, they are my best friends after all so I decide to ask if they'd like to journey with me.

"Heart..Soul, if you guys have some more time and you're not in a rush come with me for a while."- I tell them as I lead them to towards the small forested area behind the cafeteria.

"What's up?"- They both question me to which I just tell them to come with me. I mean since its the first day so its quite lax and there's still some time before we should get to bed, I can still see some kids exploring the campus here and there.

We find a small quiet clearing and I check to see if there's anyone else around. Once I make sure that we won't be disturbed I turn towards Heart and Soul and say-"Well I wanted to show you guys something so..."-I start to circulate my _Aura_ as per the _Aura Realm Cultivation_ technique and soon a sparkling leaf green mist is released from my body and slowly starts to flutter around me in a set rhythm.

"..."- I can see two jaws open so wide that ten Poke Balls can be stuffed in them.

"I... um well there are still a lot you guys don't know about me and if we're going to be journeying together I'd rather not hide my abilities."- I reply hesitatingly. I really hated keeping secrets from them I mean Heart was my best friend and Soul was my little brother, suffice to say I considered them close and I was willing to teach them the _Aura Realm Cultivation_ technique. It wasn't like I'd been keeping it from them and hogging it for myself so far but to enable one to start learning this technique required _Purified Aura_ to be infused into them and my own _Aura_ didn't meet the criteria up until very recently and training was not very fast as I had no one to guide me properly. None the less I planned to guide Heart and Soul to the best of my abilities and help them avoid some pitfalls along their cultivation, with my experience in cultivating so far as well as my Innate Skill's ability boosting my psyche; I was well equipped for the task.

"You..you.."- Both of them were left stammering for a while and when they eventually calmed down I told them how I came to be able to be in possession of _Aura_ in the first place, about what I found in the Ruins and how I planned to teach it to them as well. They were very excited by what I said so I soon had them seated with their legs crossed on the ground with my palms on each of their backs, I slowly guided my _Aura_ into them while explaining the cultivation method; I continued to help them circulate the _Aura_ for a few cycles until they got a hang of it and were capable of doing it on their own. Little did I know that my actions today would result in the birth of Jotho's three legendary trainers.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter-10**

The next morning the camp finally started in full swing, we were first grouped into four (North, South, East and West) teams with two cabins to a team. Naturally it was one boy's cabin and one girl's cabin to a team. Heart, Soul and I were in the same team-Team South- no surprise there. The day started off with a morning assembly after breakfast then for the grand opening event we witnessed a grand 6 on 6 Pokémon battle between Mr. And Mrs. Hale it was indeed very flashy and the match ended with a tie of three wins and three losses a piece.

We were then split further into groups of 32 with 8 from each team for an expedition out into Greenfield. We trekked across the plains and meadows of Greenfield enjoying the beautiful scenery as well as admiring the local Pokémon, the guides responsible for each group began to lecture us about the local Pokémon as well as some of the plants, especially focusing on those that could be used as medicine and those we must steer clear of, the lecture proceeded to more general topics of Pokémon, plants, minerals and other specialities of the of the Jotho region itself. While most kids just listened some chose to completely ignore the lecture and ogle at the sights -*cough* Heart- there were also some who were diligently taking notes every now and then, surprisingly Soul was one of them as his hands were furiously moving over a book while seldom looking around. I didn't know what he wrote in that book but I'd seen him engrossed in similar activities even back home, Heart kept trying to peek at what he was up to but had no success so far.

We reached a spot by the edge of a meadow with a stream running by very close to it and we were made to set up camp nearby for lunch. The instructors provided little help only offering directions very now and then as their motto was to enable us to accomplish these tasks on our own or we'd make poor and inexperienced trainers who wouldn't be able to accomplish much. After a hearty lunch the first group competition was under way; fishing, each of us were given a fishing rod and a set of lures to fish with in the stream. The time limit was set as three hours, one could dropout at any time and they would also be disqualified if they were careless in managing their lines and lost all their lures. The award system was as follows- 5 points for every Magikarp as they were very common, 10 points for a Goldeen/Poliwag or similar Pokémon and 20 points for a Seaking/Poliwhirl or any other rare Pokémon, the results of each individual present here would be recorded and added together to obtain each team's final score.

We all spread ourselves out along the banks of the stream to get started. It wasn't even five minutes since we started when-"Where are all the water Pokémon? Why aren't they biting yet? Its been ages already."- Heart really didn't have the patience for fishing and her constant fidgeting with her rod and agitating the waters all but guaranteed she and anyone else fishing near her wouldn't catch anything soon. So following Soul's advice I quietly fled for a better fishing spot while Heart kept yelling "traitors" at us.

Soul and I quickly came by a spot by a bend in the stream with a shady tree to provide us some cover from the sun and we resumed our fishing. Soul was amazing as he was soon able to reel in a Seaking, I could see that he had some skill as an Angler and upon questioning closer he told me he knew an old retired Angler by the name of Toby Fishlegs back in Goldenrod who taught him a thing or two. As the dead line soon came up it was evident that Soul had learnt more than just a thing or two as his score alone reached nearly 800 points. I had started to copy his actions in casting the line and reeling methods since early on and with a bit of advice every now and then I finally managed to reel in a Poliwhirl towards the end. When we got back we were treated to a burning glare from Heart who had only managed to catch less than ten Magikarp, I still don't know how she managed to catch so many. Anyhow she still seemed smug about her achievement but when the points were tallied up and it was found that Soul's points alone constituted more than double of our team of eight's total she was totally dejected. Only after much coaxing and promises of fishing lessons did she cheer up a bit. When we got back to the main campus and the overall team points were tallied, it was found that our team South won and by quite a good margin at that. Soul also won the Junior Master Angler prize as the MVP of our team.

After some refreshments, Pokémon grooming and general care classes were conducted, while all the kids were excited at the idea of giving massages to Pokémon the same couldn't be said for the Pokémon themselves. I don't know where the instructors got such patient Pokémon as they were still very cooperative after being squashed like play dough by most kids. It almost made me want to give them a good squeeze and see how they liked it, although there were the occasional kids with really gentle hands who following the Instructor's words were able to give the Pokémon a good experience. Heart, Soul and I all had an easier time as we were quite experienced in this due to having practiced on our Parent's Pokémon as well our wild Pokémon friends from the Ilex Forest.

During dinner we all sat with our cabin mates discussing what lessons we would like to focus on over the week. There were many classes being held and the kids could pick any class as long as there were still any vacancies, needless to say that the Pokémon battle class was completely filled up within five minutes and sadly only Blake, Jill and Clair from our group managed to get a spot in that class. Although I was slightly upset I didn't let it get me down as I was confident that with my already plentiful battle experience and knowledge from my past life I wasn't missing out too much. Truth is I was slightly more interested in the side skill classes that we couldn't really explore in the games in my past life. There were classes on Pokémon medicine and first aid, Pokémon daily care and grooming, Cooking, Arts and Crafts, Pokémon fashion, Photography and Cinematography, Pokémon Theatre and performance arts, Music and Dance, etc. so besides the basic fundamental classes on general Knowledge everyone had to attend, the campers were required to pick at least three classes.

After much deliberation I decided to apply for Pokémon medicine and first aid, Pokémon daily care and grooming, Cooking and simply to try something new, Music and Dance (I swear I had no sense of rhythm in my past life and my friends always teased me saying that I danced like a constipated gorilla on hot coals *sigh* here's to hoping to change and new beginnings.). Soul also picked Pokémon medicine and first aid and Pokémon daily care and grooming like me but he also choose Arts and Crafts and Photography and Cinematography. Heart picked Pokémon daily care and grooming, Pokémon fashion, Pokémon Theatre and performance arts and Music and Dance.

The next few days passed by like a breeze, in addition to the daily classes there were early morning treks through the surrounding plains, daily team competitions such as a tug of war, track and field, quiz and debates, there was even a grand treasure hunt to be organised on the last day. Besides all those competitive events, even in the regular classes though there were no official competitions every camper sought to outdo the other and put their best skills on display. One event in particular caught my eye; It turns out that Soul was a natural born artist, according to Mary who also attends the Arts and Craft class, our team mates got into a little argument with team North when the competition got a little too heated and the teacher decided to settle it with a "Sketch Off" and when Soul's sketch was revealed in front of the class even the instructor was stunned by the beautiful sketch depicting a camper reeling in a Goldeen from a stream. The entire scene looked so realistic even if it was only black pencil shading, later when the Instructor asked for Soul's sketch book to take a look through, she was amazed by the many sketches depicting cityscapes, forests and vast plains; looks like we finally know what Soul was up to when he had his head buried in his notebook.

Soul wasn't the only one showing promise as Heart had taken to the stage like a hungry Caterpie to _syrup_ coated _berries_ ; she had truly taken to the performing arts showcasing her great sense of style and fashion, the costumes she designed were all the rage in camp. I wasn't too shabby myself especially in the Music and Dance class, no choking cat like singing or constipated gorilla dancing. Thanks to my _Innate Skill_ _ **[Insight]**_ although I wasn't great at singing, learning to play instruments was easy and I put quite a lot of work in practicing and learning to play the flute, as for dancing my _Aura_ training and _Innate Skill_ helped out a lot as my coordination and reflexes were really good so all in all it was going great, though I was a little too stiff in my movements it was just due o my nervousness. The place that I really excelled at was cooking and Pokémon daily care and grooming, seeing as I often helped out in the kitchen at home and even before that in my previous life at the orphanage where I had to accommodate for some really picky eaters, my culinary skills were excellent. As for Pokémon care and grooming, I started infusing a little _Aura_ into my movements as I massaged or brushed the Pokémon so they really loved it. In fact there would always be a large crowd of Pokémon around me during class hoping I'd give them a grooming session.

The other team events went great too and our team South was solidly placed first thanks to the efforts of Heart, Soul and I. All three of us were quite fit and we easily secured first place in any physically exerting challenge and thanks to all the time I spent reading books in the library, events like debates and quizzes weren't a problem. Not to say that we hogged all the glory and it was a one man show, we worked very hard to fully integrate with our other team mates and pulled through together leaving no one behind. The three of us put in extra effort when we got to participate in mock Pokémon battles, seeing as we more experienced than our friends we were very open when someone wanted to spar and even gave helpful tips and advice to bring out our respective Pokémon partner's full strength to bear.

Before we knew it the Summer camp was drawing to a close and all that was left was the treasure hunt which was very fun and had us trek through a large region around the camp in the hunt for certain herbs, information on certain Pokémon and their habitats as well as collecting the various markers along the way. Finally in the evening every one sat around a large campfire in the amphitheatre for dinner under the starry summer sky as a few Instructors and campers put on a cultural show for everyone, needless to say Pokémon participated too. Finally just before everyone went to tuck in for the night Professor Elm decided to make the announcement that everyone was waiting for, we would finally get to know who the lucky three to get the Jotho starters will be. Everyone was waiting with baited breath as the lucky registration numbers were being called out but everyone save for three were let down, Heart was especially super depressed as one of the winning numbers differed by the final last digit with hers and she was nearly jumping off her seat with excitement as it was being called out all to be doused by the last digit.

Finally with many sighs and much muttering about the raffle being rigged and conspiracy theories we all went to bed. The next morning we said our goodbyes to our friends who hailed from different towns and cities with promises to keep in touch and visit if we happened to be in town. The three of us picked up our luggage and got on our bus as the attendant was doing a roll call. We found seats near the back of the bus and settled down.

"*sigh*, so close... so very close."- Heart laments.

"Give it a rest Heart it wasn't meant to be. In fact even the chance of getting the starters when we come of age and applying for them formally is low. We need to be prepared for whatever comes and take it in stride, its not like we can't get any good Pokémon around town and if you're still determined to get a region starter we could always search for them in the wild ourselves when we become trainers."- I try to console her.

"Yeah stop being a wuss, I personally wouldn't mind if I had to start off my journey with a Caterpie, Weedle or Rattata even."-Soul adds on.

"Don't jinx it, I still have hope. Just wait, when I get an official starter and you don't we'll see then."- Heart retorts.

*sigh* these two don't ever stop it seems. I couldn't really pick a side in this argument either as they were both right, it wouldn't do to give up on obtaining an official starter and it also wouldn't do to pin all our hopes on it either. I just wish they'd see the middle ground sometimes; I lean back against the seat and gaze out the window at the passing scene of a group of trainers dismantling their camp and continuing their journey. I become lost in thought as I recall all that I've learnt in camp and wondering how I can best utilize it to help my own journey one day.

"There's still more than two months of summer vacation left, what are we going to do? After summer camp it all seems so boring."- Heart continues whining.

"Yeah, I really wish we could have continued at camp for the rest of summer."- On a rare occasion Soul agrees with Heart.

"Come on you two there are still many more batches of kids all over Jotho who are desperate to attend camp. Besides I'm sure we'll find something interesting to do over summer to keep us occupied."- I chide them. I was also thinking of ways to make this summer more productive and the things I learnt at camp and the Pokémon Trainer group I just saw gave me a brilliant idea. If it all worked out I could make our vacation a whole lot more interesting and also make some money out of it thanks to the Pokémon centred economy of this world. I start going over the things I might require mentally and organise everything and form a proper plan that I'd be able to start on as soon as I reach home.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter-11**

It was dusk by the time the bus stopped at the Azalea town Pokémon Center, we got off the bus only to be greeted by our over excited family members. Everyone that got off at our stop said our goodbyes to the others on the bus and left for their respective houses.

We had a sumptuous dinner waiting for us at home as Mom and Dad had gone all out to welcome us back. We eagerly shared our experiences in camp with them and they also told us stories of their younger days as trainers. I let it slip that Soul was a great artist and they were very eager to see his work, so while Soul was showing our Parents his sketch book I excused myself and took a walk around the house. As I've said before it was quite a big house constructed in the traditional Japanese style, back in the day there used to be many more members of the family in the charcoal making business and the place was quite bustling but now the entire rear courtyard and nearly half the rooms were deserted and just used as store rooms at most. My plans for what to do over summer slowly started taking form.

The next day instead of going to the forest with Dad, Soul and Heart, I went to the library early to look up on information I needed to set up a small shop or cafe, in this world some kids do a few chores like gardening, a little cleaning or even helping others find lost things to earn a little extra pocket money and of course there was the ever popular lemonade stand. I wanted to set up a proper shop and cafe in our rear courtyard and put the skills I learnt in camp to good use as well as to polish them further. There were a few permits that I needed if I wanted to make this project as grand as the one in my head and not just a small stand. I recorded everything down and then went for a walk around town to check out all the specialities available locally while at the same time occasionally identifying potential suppliers. I bought a few ingredients to try out the recipes I'd obtained in camp and the library which included those for _Poke Puffs, Poffins_ and _Poke Blocks_ to name a few.

Once I got home with my arms laden with my loot, I head straight for the kitchen while Mom stares on with a confused expression. She follows me into the kitchen to see what I was up to. I neatly set up everything and wash my hands as well as some of the ingredients that need washing and soon get to work, not too long after the aroma of many delicious delicacies starts to spread. Mom who was initially just watching quietly by the sidelines comes up to ask me what exactly I was doing.

"Just want to try something I learnt at camp Mom."- I reply back. Seeing me being busy in the kitchen she decides to lend a hand and we get started on preparing lunch as well considering Dad and Soul would be back soon.

When the two returned from the forest and after dropping Heart off at her place, they were greeted with a special spread on the table; "What's this about, is there anything special, it can't be our anniversary can it?"- Dad wonders. Mom elbows him "No its not, Sage just wanted to try out a few new recipes from camp it seems. Anyway you wouldn't forget our anniversary ever again would you?"-she replies back and the last sentence makes Dad shiver a little as he recalls what happened that one time he did forget.

We all settle down for lunch eventually after washing up a bit. On the menu for us is rice with a special curry I made from some medicinal herbs and spices along with some diced _Berries_ as well as an assorted basket of different kinds of buns and breads, a pitcher of iced _Berry Juice_ for refreshments and for desert my own recipe Syrup glazed Berry Pie. For the Pokémon I prepared some special _Poke Puffs, Poffins, Poke Blocks_ and customized _Pokémon food_.

I watched on expectantly as everyone dug in, there was a pause and just as I was expecting the worst they started eating at great speed afraid the food might suddenly grow feet and run away. I tried to get a response from them but they were too busy eating even the Pokémon had their heads stuck to the dishes swallowing everything down , so I had no option but wait for everyone to finish. All the dishes were soon cleaned out completely and I finally got a review for my food. I already had a hunch seeing the way they were eating and the empty vessels but it was still very pleasing to hear the endless praise for my cooking.

"Haaa... that was great, Sage my boy with such great cooking skill you could open a restaurant."- Dad exclaims while rubbing his belly.

"Thanks Dad that was sort of the plan any way."- I reply back, there is a moment of awkward silence as Mom, Dad and Soul digest what I just said.

"Sage honey... what.. what do you mean exactly?"- Mom questions me. I slowly explain my plans to open a shop and cafe while at the same time ask for permission to use the rear courtyard and some of the rooms in the back.

Mom and Dad considered it a bit and decided to first check further with me if I had all the details down and I understood what I was getting myself into. I slowly explained everything and assured them I wouldn't make too much of a fuss and only use stuff easily available to set up the cafe and shop. They finally relented and even agreed to help in the initial setup.

So the following week although Dad would still go collect wood from the forest, he would occasionally help out in cleaning up the rear portion of the house. Heart after hearing about our plan was only too eager to help out. So the first week since we started work was mostly spent in cleaning up the area and looking through all the rooms for furniture. Thankfully we found dozens of different types of chairs and stools all over the abandoned portions of the house and there were quite a number of tables as well. The most amazing discovery was the battlefield in the canter of the courtyard which was previously hidden under a layer of fallen leaves, dust and dirt.

Though the initial work was hard there was also some plus points, for instance in order to set a menu I started going all out in gathering recipes and cooking various dishes for each meal even going so far as to incorporating some of the dishes that only existed in my previous world. So thanks to that every meal's menu was different with dishes ranging from salads, soups, sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, pastas, dumplings, takoyaki, ramen, rice cakes, etc. I know some of these dishes might require meat but meat in this world it was not quite the same, the meat and other such products like fur were obtained from the large volume of trainers. Remember how I said that defeating Pokémon in the wild has 5% chance to drop some cash or _Items,_ well that was only the most useful _Items_ you saw in the game, the rest of the times they dropped furs or meat which they had to sell in bulk to make some decent cash (again it wasn't their skin and flesh but more like a bundle of neatly folded fur piece or blocks of manga meat which could astonishingly be kept fresh as is for way longer than any meat had a right to be kept for. Honestly even the meats in my previous life with the best preservation methods couldn't be kept for so long; really some aspects could not be explained any other way but as game elements). Anyway as they were so common and did not have any special set function other than to serve as food materials and in this world that had a relatively low human population and a higher ratio of natural green ecosystems to urbanised human dwellings as compared to my previous world food was one thing there was no shortage of the world over. So end result was that the raw ingredients were inexpensive in this world.

We still had a few days to go before all the permits were produced so we got busy in setting a layout and decorating the place up. We set up chairs and tables in a big hall next to the courtyard as well as a few outside right next to the battlefield so that customers could enjoy a battle as they ate. We got frames for the sketches Soul made of scenes around town and the Ilex forest and arranged them around the place. When we were done the whole place looked quite nice although some would call it odd-

"I don't know, although it feels nice and is definitely unique but come on the fact that all the furniture and even the crockery are miss-matched is very odd."- Heart states. It was kind of true as we'd pulled in different furniture from all over the house resulting in this and the rush we were in to get everything done resulted in us buying crockery sets of different designs as the stores around us didn't have stock of large quantities in a single design.

"Really that's what you find odd; not the fact that this place is going to be run by a bunch of kids."- Soul responds with a teasing smile.

"The only odd one here is you. Why can't you do anything more productive instead of just muttering so much?"- Heart starts flaring up.

"Ohhh... productive like what missy?"- Soul continues to egg her on.

"Guys give it a rest; we still need to pick a name for this place before we open in three days time."- I try to divert their attention into more pressing issues as our establishment was still nameless.

"I can't believe you planned so many details for this but neglected to pick a name for it."- Heart starts to admonish me now.

"Yeah now that is really odd."- Soul teams up with her and they both gang up on me.

"Guys.. wait... come on..."- I protest weakly as I furiously work my brain for a name until it finally hits me-"I got it, its just like you guys said this place is odd down to its very essence, so why not call it ' **Odd Shop & Cafe**'. What do you think?"

They mull over the name then take a look around the shop and then mull over it some more before agreeing to the name. So everything was set, the **Odd Shop & Cafe** would open for business in three days time. We did some last minute preparations like making the store sign and stocking up on supplies, Soul even drew some fantastic posters that we could distribute and we even gathered some medicinal herb and other knick-knacks we had gathered in the Ilex forest to put on sale, I even put some of the _Apricorn Poke balls_ I made for sale. Of course none of the fusion ones just the normal ones, the fusion balls were quite special and I couldn't sell the fusions of factory made ones bought from the store even if I wanted to as that would violate their marketing policy; those were only the product of my hobby and for self use only and not to make a profit from sales.

Anyway we put up our posters at all the main town entries and exits, in the Pokémon center, the Police station and other common areas like the town square and parks. All that was left to do was wait for the day of the grand opening of the **Odd Shop & Cafe. **On the first day, business was slow as only a handful of trainers showed up and a couple of them were just lost and only came to ask for directions, one even turned up just to have his Pokémon learn _Cut_ from Dad. Heart was pretty dejected by the whole thing and even Soul was feeling down though he tried his best to hide it. I still didn't give up despite all this as I knew that we were a new establishment and had no reputation so far, I made sure to serve the few that did come to the shop some of our best dishes at special grand opening discounts and I even managed to rope in those two lost trainers in with the promise to guide them in exploring the Ilex forest later.

News must have spread as on the second day a few more trainers showed up to grace our establishment, there were even a few to request for a guide to explore the Ilex forest as the two I had accompanied before had a safe and pleasant experience, this gave me an idea to start up a new service. Pretty soon our **Odd Shop & Cafe** became quite the popular location for travellers, I mean honestly we had great food, good service, a nice ambiance, Heart would occasionally put up dance and musical performances and Soul would even offer to make amazing sketches and caricatures for the customers. But still we had no idea just how popular our cafe would get, I mean sure the profits were great but there was just too much work load for the three of us even though we only opened for 6 hours a day- 2 hour periods for breakfast lunch and dinner. At the end of our first three weeks of operation we were bummed.

"See its too much work for just you kids, this is why I said you need to consider carefully before you set off on this project."- Mom gives us some advice offhandedly while going over her research papers one evening. I'm pretty sure that the problem we're facing right was not the one she previously expected though, it was more like she expected our business to not pickup and us to be upset over the lack of business and not the overflow of it. Can't really blame her though, normally three 7-8 year old kids wouldn't be able to run a business as well as us. The most important thing was talent, both Soul and Heart had plenty of it and they had exceptional drive too, all that coupled with my careful planning and research into the local market potential in doing business with trainers lead to a very successful venture.

"Well if you really insist on continuing I'd advise you to start hiring new recruits and expanding your work force."- She tells us after putting aside her papers and looking at the three of us sprawled out on the sofa. It takes a while for what she said to sink into our tired brains, we think it over slowly.

"But Mom, even if we wanted to hire new people who do we ask? Who'd be willing? Its just as you said, we're just kids."- Soul asks.

"That's right you are kids, now tell me the whole reason you first started to do this in the first place was to do something interesting over the summer and also earn a little extra pocket money while you're at it wasn't it? Can't you think of other people who might share similar opinions?"- Mom hints at us.

"Our class mates from school, of course. Betty and Mark who live on the same street as me were very jealous when they found out we were running this place, it wouldn't be too hard to recruit from our own school friends."- Heart responds as a light bulb goes on in her head.

We soon start discussing about inviting our friends from school to give us a hand and later quickly rush out to hire anyone of them if they are willing to help. "Thanks Mom (Mrs. Peirce)."- We hurriedly thank her on our way out as she looks on with a knowing smile.

Mom's idea turned out to be brilliant; all our classmates were more than willing to help out and business started to pick up even more. Heart and Soul got a little more free time and got busy designing and crafting cute little accessories like bracelets, hair clips, bandanas, etc for both Pokémon and trainers alike and other souvenirs like small wood carvings which sold like hot cakes and though I couldn't completely abandon the kitchen there were quite a few of my friends among the new employees who had put in a little more effort to learn to cook in anticipation of going on their own journey so I had help too. Over time with my expert advice and more practice they got the hang of it so I decided to expand a bit as well and opened one of the empty adjacent rooms to use as a Pokémon grooming and massage parlour, the other kids were very excited by the new expansion and only too happy to work with Pokémon.

Soon the **Odd Shop & Cafe **became a landmark of Azalea town and many of the adults would occasionally help out too especially Mrs. Mathews who owned the only inn in town, she nearly completely abandoned her own small cafe to help us out, I kind of felt bad for stealing some of her business as she was such a nice lady. Eventually after a talk with my parents we partnered up with her cafe as she had some great infrastructure for cooking in greater quantities as well as a considerably sized cold storage unit, we decide to also help out at her cafe so it was almost like we had two branches. We learnt a great deal from her experience and she also had some great recipes as well which is why she still had some loyal customers even now; working together both of us saw a boom in business especially in the dessert department as Mrs. Mathews made some great ice cream and pastries (with a little tweaking of the recipe our new Syrup glazed Berry Pie with a scope of Ice cream became our signature dish).

By the end of the summer everyone had made quite a large sum and we marked the event off by organising a Pokémon Battle tournament for our customers with the top prizes being some rare _Items_ we'd found in the forest like a _Fire stone_ and _Moon stone_ , I even put up some of my custom made _Fusion Apricorn Poke balls_. It was a big hit but when some of our customers found out that we would close when school started again there was much grumbling with some even wailing over not being able to eat our tasty food or experience the other fine services we offer, in the end due to popular demand we decided to continue to operate over the weekends with a promise to come back in full swing next summer again. I could see this as becoming a sort of a regular thing for generations in this town as school kids still too young to start off as trainers could come gain experience here, the townsfolk would be more than happy to see something like that come about one day.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter-12**

Nearly two years later three shining blurs race through the tree tops of the Ilex forest. Needless to say it was Soul, Heart and I- Sage, rushing through the forest and celebrating the completion of our intermediate school years. We were now nearly 10 years old, that's right we would soon be able to head off on our own Pokémon Trainer journey. I didn't know the exact details about this before but apparently this journey was a special rite of passage for all people in this world and it was even considered somewhat sacred. There was a special presentation for those of us graduating that went into the details of this important phase of our lives. Apparently when one entered this phase, time would seemingly stop for that person for roughly 20 years (that sort of explains the seemingly eternal 10 year old Ash Ketchum) and they would only continue to age normally after this phase. I was completely gobsmacked by this revelation.

It was the common belief of the people of this world that this phase in a person's life signified a time for the individual to go out and explore the vast and beautiful world before coming back and settling down into regular careers. This again raised countless questions in my mind about this world where humanity and nature had come to an amazing harmony. With the average life expectancy of a person being around 120 years (excluding the 20 year stagnant phase) there were no issues with some family members dying before becoming a grandparent. Anyway we were all registered to become trainers and would be able to set off on our journey towards the end of the summer. Many of my friends were already gearing up and busy stocking up on supplies as well as searching for suitable Pokémon to make their first, there were even a couple of crazies that had signed up for those wacky Pokémon Tech Schools. *shivers* I'm glad not to be going there.

"*mutter* *grumble* I still don't understand why you're having us delay with our shopping for our Pokémon trainer journey, just yesterday Betty was showing off her new _Bag_ to me and it really irked me a lot."- Heart complains as we stop by at the edges of a stream.

"I already told you, you can make your purchases but Soul and I are gonna wait just a little more. Just don't whine later when our stuff is better."- I reply back to her.

"*humph* you still won't tell me what all this is about, where would you get better quality equipment? Even if what you say is true its not like we are short on money or anything, we can still buy them later."- Heart continues to whine; something she said is true though, thanks to the **Odd Shop & Cafe** all the kids in town had more than sufficient funds and could afford some of the really high quality pieces of gear without feeling a pinch to their wallets.

"Just tell her the plan already or I will, I can't take this whining anymore."- Soul covers his ears and moves a little farther away from Heart's nagging.

"You.."- Heart is about to start an argument with Soul but I rush to cut her off-"Alright, you want to know why I'm still delaying, I'll tell you. Listen, did you know that foreign envoys from another region will be coming to Goldenrod city next month to put on an exhibition?"- I decide to tell her some of the information I'd obtained from my conversations with Nurse Joy.

"So what does that have to do with us putting off our shopping?" – Heart questions further.

"*sigh* look these events held by envoys from different regions only occur once every 5 years and there is always a big fair and market held each time. You'd be able to find many new amazing _Items_ and gear native to that region and in addition many other regular equipment would be sold at special discounted prices. It'd be the best time and place for us to stock up."- I explain.

"Really, a fair organised by people from a different region! So cool, hey which region are they coming from, tell me tell me."- Heart's eyes start to sparkle and she begins to pester me for more information.

"Its the Hoenn region that will be hosting the event this time around. I'm sure its going to be great."- I reply back. All this was actually still kept under wraps and the official announcement wouldn't be made for another two weeks, the only reason I was even able to find out about this so early was because lately I'd been helping around at the Pokémon center a lot. My grooming technique was quite famous in town right now and I also wanted to further study Pokémon medicine and health care so I was a big help to Nurse Joy, so through her connections I was able to obtain all sorts of exclusive news and information.

"Alright, enough with your chatter you two, Sage don't give us any more information and ruin our surprise. Now let's get cracking and collect more wood, if I'm not wrong our Azalea town _Charcoal_ has quite a good reputation even in other regions so we need to increase production for the upcoming exhibition trade fair."- Soul interrupts our conversation and tells us to focus on our task at hand.

By the end of the day we've collected quite a haul and are now rushing back home, the considerable load of lumber does not hinder our movement at all now as we streak through the forest with our _Auras_ circulating around us. With two years of constant practise even Heart and Soul can manifest their _Auras_ externally now, Heart has a dazzling crimson _Aura_ where as Soul's _Aura_ is a soothing azure blue.

We spend the rest of the days counting down the time before our trip to Goldenrod city by working extra hard at the cafe to save some more money in the last minute as well as helping Dad and even Kurt in stocking up on _Charcoal_ and _Apricorn Poke balls_ to send over to the trade fair. Soon the first day of the fair had come and gone but we were still in town, Heart was getting very impatient.

"Its already the second day since the fair began but we're still here."- Heart was complaining.

"Calm down we need to wait for the caravan to finish preparations so we can't just leave when we want to. It'll take at least three more days for everyone to finish preparations, just wait a little longer the fair will continue for three weeks anyway."- Soul tries to stop her whining.

We're in the forest again today with Charlie and Charlotte circling around us in the air as we proceed deeper into the woods, Poki can't keep up with our speed anymore so he's in his _Poke ball._ We were approaching one of the few main roads traversing the Ilex forest when we heard the loud sound of a vehicle passing through. We all slow down and wait for the vehicle to pass this section before getting down from our perch in the trees and making our way to the other side of the road and continuing our journey. A jeep soon comes into our view and as we look on we are really surprised by the occupants. The two occupants of the jeep, the driver and the one riding shotgun were both wearing half masks to cover their face and seem to be dressed in thick black jumpsuits complete with white gloves, there was a big maroon 'R' symbol on their chest. I instantly recognize who they are, well I might not know their individual identities but it was easy to tell they were part of Team Rocket and judging by their rash and speedy driving and the constant vigilance to the road behind them I could guess they were making a getaway after a crime.

"We have to stop those guys, now."- Surprisingly it was Soul who first came to and it seemed like he knew they were crooks too.

"What's going on? Who are those guys?"- Heart enquires with a confused look.

"They are part of a large criminal organisation called Team Rocket that's involved in the theft and smuggling of Pokémon and precious goods. It looks like they have something in the back of their jeep; we have to stop them fast."- I briefly explain to Heart, after noticing some box like items covered by a thick cloth in the back of the jeep.

Soul gives me a brief surprised look as I was able to identify them but didn't question me further right now as we had more pressing things to do.

"Let's drop a couple trees into their path. Heart get Poki out we're gonna need all the help we can get."- Soul comes up with a quick plan.

We ask Charlie and Charlotte to cut down a couple of trees down ahead and block the road while we wait, the three of us hide in the bushes nearby with Poki ready to mount an ambush as soon as they step out of the vehicle. Sure enough those Team Rocket goons come to a screeching halt before the fallen trees and we hear them grumbling as they get off the jeep.

"We finally throw those meddlesome patrols off completely only to be delayed by this road block."- The Driver complains.

"Quit whining and quickly clear the path, the rest of the gang should be in position outside Azalea town by now."- Said the other as they both called out a Machop to push the trees off the road.

Just as the Machop were pushing the trees, Heart had Poki use _Psychic_ on one of them while Soul had Charlotte use _Arial Ace_ on the other. I simultaneously had Charlie use _Sand Attack_ on the two Rocket members and before they could recover Soul and I had tackled them to the ground. First blinded with sand and then suffering a sudden blow they become momentarily stunned, we don't waste any time and use the rope we always carry to bind the cut wood blocks to tie them up quickly.

"What the..."-Before they even know what happened we've already completely restrained them. Soul and I search them to confiscate all their _Poke balls_ and check for anything else they could use to escape while Heart goes to the back of the jeep and pulls down the cover over the cargo they were carrying.

"Come quickly and help me out here."- Heart calls out to us. We leave Charlie and Charlotte to watch over our captives in case they try anything funny before heading over to check what they had stolen.

There were two medium sized crates about 1x2x3 feet big stacked on top of each other on the side, but that wasn't what caught most of our attention. Our attention was mostly drawn to the large metal cage occupying most of the space in the back and its three prisoners. There were three small Pokémon imprisoned in the cage and by the looks of things were quite badly injured, they were also _paralysed_ to top it off.

"Quick we need to help them."- Heart calls out as she tries to pull at the bars with all her strength as the Pokémon look on weakly. Even with all her strength the cage seems to be too much for Heart, I remember seeing a key on the Team Rocket members while we were searching them before so I rush back to retrieve it.

We soon unlock the cage door and as we try to gently take out the Pokémon out, they struggle in fear and one of them even seems to be glaring at us fiercely. I'm sure if it were not _paralysed_ and able to move more freely it would definitely attack us.

"What Pokémon are these? I've never seen ones like these even in the library picture books."- Heart asks as she examines the small orange and yellow Pokémon in her hands as well as the blue and orange one in Soul's and the green and red one in mine.

"They're not from around here. These Pokémon are native to the Hoenn region, in fact they are the region starters there."- I say as I try to gently lay the struggling and glaring Treecko in my hands on a soft patch of grass and start the treatment.

"Looks like our friends back there hit the foreign envoy's exhibition in Goldenrod city and were trying to make a getaway through the Ilex forest to lose their pursuers."- Soul accesses the situation as he also lays the Mudkip he has down and starts treatment.

"Those vile criminals look what they've done to them. Its all right now relax, we're going to hurt you we're here to help heal you."- Heart says as she soothingly starts work on the Torchic who seems the most injured and exhausted as it can barely make a few weak chirps.

We pull out all the _medicines_ we have on hand and quickly get to work. Torchic is the most cooperative mostly because its the most tired and Treecko is the most wild as it seems to be highly distrustful of our intentions, in fact as soon as some of the treatment has taken effect it swiftly swipes its tail to smack my hands. It then proceeded to 'rescue' Mudkip and Torchic from our clutches as it attacked Soul and Heart subsequently.

We were all so surprised when Treecko shoved us back one at time and pulled the other two towards the forest that we were momentarily frozen in place. They did not get far as Torchic fell down from its severe injuries and we soon rushed to them. Heart would not give up on treating her patient and after a few more gentle persuasions from us and our Pokémon Treecko finally seemed to relent to receiving our help. With their injuries addressed and their tummies filled with some of the _Berries_ we had they seemed to be in the mood to doze off from exhaustion, even Treecko was nodding off a bit although it tried its best to stay awake while Mudkip was already laying on the grass and snoozing and Torchic had much to Heart's delight curled up on her lap in content.

We decide to wait a while as we interrogate our Team Rocket captives and obtain any more leads we can on their plans. The rest period doubles as giving the injured Pokémon time for some peaceful sleep and also waiting to check if the pursuing police patrols originally chasing the two miscreants would catch up on their trail and get here to assist us.

The two Rocket members are very tight lipped and don't seem to be willing to share any information even after an hour has elapsed and their pursuers are also nowhere in sight, looks like they've completely evaded them. The three of us started discussing off to the side about how to proceed; if it would be better to wait for the patrol some more or escort the two Rocket members and all their stolen goods back to town to hand over to Officer Jenny along with taking the injured Pokémon to the Pokémon center and having Nurse Joy have a look at them.

"*humph* You twerps are from Azalea town right? You better enjoy your victory now cause by the time you get back your homes might not be in one piece."- One of the goons scoffs at us. I remember them talking about their gang camped outside Azalea town and start to panic, I rush over to him and roughly shake him by the collar and demand what meant but he says no more. With that threat we decide to head back immediately so we each carry one of the Injured Pokémon in our arms as Charlie and Charlotte fly in a tight circle around our captives as we frog march them back towards town, we don't forget their other loot as well as Soul and I each tie a crate securely to our backs before heading out.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter-13**

We were rushing back as soon as we could, on the way I decided to call in some reinforcements from my wild Pokémon friends as I was not sure what we would be up against when we got to town. The smug expressions on the faces of the two Rocket members turned into one of absolute fear when we got a swarm consisting of a few tens of Beedrill and over two dozen Oddish and Paras to follow us. By now our relations with the wild Pokémon were so good that they were even willing to listen to our commands and head into battle once in a while.

As we neared the outer fringes of the forest, we could see a bit of the town not far away through the gaps in the trees and it did not look good. Smoke was rising from several places all over town and we could see a small crowd of people mostly the really young and old being evacuated out of town through the nearest roads. We rush to the nearest Policeman standing by the side of the road and directing the crowd to get more information on the condition in town, he was quite stunned by our entourage for a while before he was able to reply. We learnt that nearly four dozen Team Rocket members had descended into town and were wreaking havoc as they gathered the town's Slowpoke to harvest their tails and plundering anything valuable along the way. A state of emergency had been declared and all trainers in town were requested to help, some of the capable citizens also volunteered to help the law enforcement forces as well.

The three of us didn't dither too long, we handed over custody of the two prisoners and their stolen goods to the Policeman but the three Pokémon adamantly refused to part with us so we had no choice but to hold on to them for now as we rushed into the alleys to help. We split up each taking roughly 20 Beedrill and 10 Paras and Oddish, to cover more ground and stop all the Team Rocket goons scattered throughout town as we made our way to the town square. I soon come across a group of 6 Team Rocket members attacking a family that was rushing to evacuate, there were some trainers trying to help but they were outnumbered and the Rocket members were completely out of control having their Rattatas and Zubats attack the surroundings causing mass destruction. I immediately order the Beedrill to attack those miscreants with _Pin Missile_ and _Poison Sting_ at the same time have the Paras and Oddish restrain them with moves like _Stun Spore_ and _Sleep Powder_. The Rocket Members are quickly subdued and the family rescued.

"Head towards the forest for now, there is already a large group being evacuated two blocks away join them, it'll be safer."- I tell the family. I then turn towards the trainers and say-"Thanks for helping out, I'd much appreciate it if those with water type Pokémon could help in putting out the fires. There are a lot of these guys still running around so please continue lending us a hand."

I continue moving in a systematic manner fighting everyone from Team Rocket along the way as well as lending a hand to anyone in distress. I am very careful in making sure that the Rocket members I come across are completely incapacitated before moving on, it'd be horrible if they somehow escaped and continued to wreak havoc. Before splitting up from Heart and Soul we'd learnt that the main big wigs of this Gang of Team Rocket had set up a perimeter at the Mayor's house and the main town square in front of it so the three of us took different routes to head to the center of the chaos. On reaching the outer edges of the town square, I was greeted with the sight of over a dozen Team Rocket goons piloting large robots while simultaneously ordering a bunch of their Pokémon- Golbats, Raticates, Ekans, Koffings and Machops to attack the large congregation of trainers, Policemen and some town residents gathered to fight them under the leadership of Bugsy the town's Pokémon Gym leader. Although the Rocket members were outnumbered the ones stationed here were no doubt the elites of the organisation plus they had giant robots so the situation was sort of at a stale-mate with neither side willing to give in.

"Treecko."- The Treecko I was carrying in my arms called out as he cast a fiery glare at the Team Rocket members gathered here, he would constantly glare at all the Rocket members we came across so far but he was not this fierce before. I was sure that if he was in better health he would have rushed to attack them as well.

Charlie from his high vantage point spotted my parents first and as expected they were in the thick of action, I head to join them. When I approach them they are having a fierce battle with a robot, Mom and Dad have mixed emotions as I join them- they're glad I'm here safe and sound but also worried that I came to such a dangerous place; Kurt and his Golem suddenly barge in on the scene demanding to know Heart's whereabouts. They seem to be having many questions regarding my company as well as Soul's and Heart's absence but the situation right now is not appropriate for discussions so after a brief reassurance promising everyone's safety and a short run down of our experience so far we focus on the battle. Charlie joined Dad in battle- he was battling with Jack so far- while I directed the Beedrill and Paras to unleash _String Shot_ on all the joints of the Robot, with its movement severely hampered it became a sitting duck for a _Dragon Rage_ from Chester. The Robot crumbled as it couldn't put up much of a defence; "Aim for the joints to hamper their movement and weaken them first, it'll be easier to take them down afterwards."- I yell out loudly and advice all the trainers on our side.

I spot Soul and Heart as the rush out of an alley and head to our direction as they spot us. We team up together having the Beedrills and Paras focus on using _String Shot_ to tie down the Robots and have the Oddish use crowd control restraining moves like _Poison Powder, Stun Spore_ and _Sleep Powder_ on the opposing Pokémon. Bugsy and the others from his gym also started using this tactic to great effect, with our help restraining Team Rocket, the heavy hitters had an easier time charging up and unleashing their most powerful moves successfully. Soon the entire place is lit up as moves like _Hyper Beam, Fire Blast, Thunder, Solar Beam_ , etc. hit the robots.

The delicate balance immediately starts to tip in our favour; the remaining Team Rocket members start to panic as their forces crumble one at a time. Right at this moment the Team Rocket Officer leading this group focused his attention on the three of us from his spot on the balcony of the Mayor' mansion, identifying us as the main cause for the sudden change in their fortunes he heads back into the mansion; not long after a loud rumbling is heard from behind the mansion. The cause of the disturbance soon becomes apparent as a big robot, twice the size of the ones we were currently facing arrived on scene. The Team Rocket Officer was inside piloting this one himself and the screen in front of him displayed the targeting system which had fully locked onto Soul, Heart and I.

I start to get a bad feeling as soon as the larger robot appears; the few trainers closest to it have their Pokémon attack it instantly but they might as well sprinkle water over it as their attacks barely put a dent on it, its defence is way higher compared to the ones we faced so far. The robot turns in our direction and my discomfort increases; there is a loud swishing sound and a lot of smoke from the robot's sides. I yell and push at Heart and Soul as the projectiles launched by the robot fly our way; we barely escape the attack radius but are still knocked off our feet, we hold on tightly to the Pokémon we had rescued as they struggle in the chaos.

After regaining my balance I find out that the robot still hasn't given up on attacking us and is preparing to fire another round. Seeing this Mom and Kurt go ballistic and they order their Pokémon to attack, Chester used _Outrage_ and Golem used _Super Power_ on the robot, the continuous pummelling pushes it back by a few meters and disrupts its attack causing its projectiles fly off course and miss us. That's still just a small respite though as the robot is still in great condition despite everyone's effort in attacking it and Chester is now confused and Golem enters a weakened state. It fires a couple more rounds at us and we desperately evade; if it were anyone else they would be seriously injured in the first round of firing itself but thanks to our _Aura_ training we were able to evade danger by barely a few inches even if we don't manifest it externally. The fact that Bugsy and Dad also came to our rescue and distract the robot helped, Bugsy had his Scyther constantly harass it by using moves like _Agility, Double Team, Razor Wind_ and _X-Scissor_ while Dad had Charlie and Charlotte skilfully deflect and parry some of the attacks fired at us with _Cut_ and _Slash_. Though their attacks did not harm the robot much but it sure got it distracted enough to help us out in this mess.

"You two do something quickly."- Heart screams at us as she evades left and right with Torchic tightly grasped in her hands. Our previous tactics of restraining robots is not effective on this one as its too strong and able to break through the restraints we put on it in seconds.

"We're going to have to combine our efforts. Even if its defence is super strong and direct attacks don't work it has to have some weakness."- I say as I rack my brains to defeat this opponent and suddenly I get an idea. I order the Oddish to use _Razor Leaf_ on the robot; even with ten Oddish combined together in this attack it didn't faze the robot but that wasn't my goal, with the dense cover of leaves its targeting system wasn't able to get a lock on us and also provided cover for what I wanted to do next. I then had all the Beedrill and Paras use _String Shot_ at its feet along with some of the Oddish using _Grass Knot_ , the robot was definitely off balance now and just a little more force would drop it.

Heart understanding my intentions asked her Grandpa Kurt to have Golem use _Earthquake_ on the robot and Dad grasping the timing has Charlie and Charlotte attack with _Cut_ to strike the robot right behind its knees. The gigantic robot begins to fall like a gigantic felled tree, taking advantage of the chance I order all the Beedrill, Paras and Oddish to attack with any projectile moves they know, Bugsy's Scyther and Chester having recovered after some time both join in with a _Giga Impact_ and _Hyper Beam_ respectively. Normally these attacks would not be much of a threat to the robot but coupled with the momentum of its gigantic body falling to the ground the effects were stunning, cracks spread all over the body like spider webs.

As the robot was trying to get back up Soul gathered a bunch of trainers with fire and water type Pokémon who attacked alternatively. Due to the massive stresses by rapid temperature changes between the two types of attacks the cracks all along its body spread and the robot was soon sending out sparks from various damaged parts, the attacks seemed to have reached some of the core electronics inside. After a few moments the robot couldn't take it anymore and the Team Rocket Officer opted to eject, moments after he was ejected the robot exploded. The Team Rocket Officer sought to use the cover of the explosion to make a quick get away with his jet-pack but I was already expecting something like this; I had a small pack of about a dozen Beedrill keeping a perimeter around the square by air, as soon as the Team Rocket Officer made to get away the closest Beedrill attacked with _Poison Jab_. The attack destroyed his jet-pack and also poisoned him, the poisoned and battered Team Rocket Officer dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, the Beedrill then securely tied him up with _String Shot_. The rest of the stragglers from Team Rocket fell not long afterward and the town Square and Mayor's mansion were secured, after the criminals here were properly restrained squads of trainers and Policemen spread out over town to catch the rest of the Rocket members still on the loose under Officer Jenny's instructions.

A temporary first aid and recovery camp was being set up at the square under the leadership of Nurse Joy to treat all of the injured after the great battle. I decided to help with the recovery as some of the wild Pokémon I'd brought over were injured as well while Heart and Soul took the remaining healthy Pokémon to do a sweep around town. There was a lot of work to be done, Team Rocket had really caused a lot of pain- from the poor Slowpokes with their chopped off tails to the many partners of the trainers/townsfolk as well as any other Pokémon unfortunate enough to got caught in the cross fire. Heart and Soul left the Torchic and Mudkip behind as well for more through treatment, they still hadn't settled down after the whole fiasco apparently as they kept throwing really pitiful looks to them when they were left behind to recover while they went to patrol. They were now being uncooperative as a form of protest and were giving Nurse Joy a lot of trouble.

"These poor Pokémon; to have to experience all that at such a tender age, I'd hate to imagine what would have happened to them if you hadn't rescued them Sage."-Nurse Joy says after hearing my side of the story about what happened in the Ilex forest.

"That's right, these Pokémon are not from this region originally and hence very rare. We need to get them back to the envoys from Hoenn at Goldenrod city as soon as possible, I'm sure they are extremely worried about them. Sage honey, you, Soul and Heart did a wonderfully brave thing in rescuing them."- Mom compliments me as she also lends a hand. Dad and Kurt went along with Soul and Heart; with all that happened so far there was no way they were letting us go unsupervised any longer. Even though we were more grown up now and would even embark on our journey soon it really touched me to know how much our family cared for us.

"I'd be happy to take them back to Goldenrod city myself and I'm sure Heart and Soul would feel the same but the caravan is going to be delayed after this disaster. Nurse Joy, I was wondering if maybe you could get in touch with the police forces from Goldenrod city, I heard that a patrol was sent to rescue the kidnapped Pokémon, they might be close by."- I say, honestly my true inner self definitely doesn't want to part with these guys just yet but I know that they don't belong to me and they are sure to be missing their home. Especially now that Treecko seems to have warmed up to me I was all the more dreading our arewell, it was even helping me pacify the other two now.

"I'm afraid that's not possible right now Sage, the first thing Team Rocket did when they attacked the town was to cut off all the communication lines and isolate us, even the town's satellite communications are down so the _Poke Gear's_ call, radio and mapping functions in this region are also disrupted."- Nurse Joy tells me in a depressed tone. Looks like these three will have to stay in town for a while; I tried to do my best not to let my inner happiness show.

We were finally done treating them and got them to lie down and rest up while we moved on to treat the other Pokémon. I could still feel Treecko's gaze on my back as I left and the feeling didn't go away for quite a while, I decided to stop being so self conscious and put more focus in treating the injured Sandshrew that a trainer brought in, I also did my best to reassure him as he seemed very worried. Finally after a little more than two hours Heart and Soul returned escorted by Dad and Kurt. They joined in to help with the treatment process seeing as there were still many injured Pokémon, it was also a good time for us to exchange information the others had gathered. I learnt that a majority of the Rocket members were captured and were put behind bars along with their leader with only a handful managing to escape; all the goods they had stolen were safely recovered and were being gathered at the square for their respective owners to come and claim them. There were also many missions being put up to help speed up the town's recovery.

"By the way where are those three Pokémon we rescued being kept?"- Heart tries to sound as casual as possible when she enquires about them but I can still hear the longing in her voice.

"They are resting in that big tent over there, the blue one closest to the Pokémon center."- I answer her as I finish treating the last Pokémon in line, looks like we're done for the day.

"Well since we're finished here I'll go check up on them."- Heart declares as she starts to head over there.

"Don't, they're resting, you're bound to disturb them with your personality."- Soul says to her while also following behind her.

"I'm going to disturb them am I? You are the one who is going to disturb them seeing as you're the most annoying person in town. Besides why are you following me?"- Heart shoots back at him.

"To keep an eye on you of course, so that you don't startle the poor Pokémon."- Soul replies with a straight face. It was easy to see that he was just as eager to visit the Pokémon but was just too 'Soul' to admit to it straight up.

"Alright you two if you continue quarrelling like this, both of you will disturb their rest, let's all just quietly look in on them."- I try to make peace as we approach our destination.

"Torrr..chic.."- The Torchic gets up with bleary eyes sensing our approach, looks like we really did disturb them. Just as I was about to pull the other two back and let the Pokémon go back to sleep but-

"Torchic..."- The Torchic lets out a loud joyful cry upon spotting Heart and jumps right into the surprised girl's arms.

"Mudkip..." "Treecko..."- The other two are also startled awake by the commotion, Mudkip also skips along and comes to cuddle up with Soul. Soul not being the type to be very expressive becomes very stiff and his face starts twitching. I try my best to not laugh at this comical scene, looks like Soul just got Mudkipped.

Treecko just keeps staring at me, only occasionally looking at his two other friends getting along with Heart and Soul. "Are you feeling better? Don't worry; we'll help you get back to perfect health and send you home safe and sound."- I say comfortingly as I walk closer and sit beside him. I pull out an _Oran Berry_ from my pouch and offer it to Treecko who accepts it and digs in calmly. Soul and Heart also feed the other two some _Berries_ and watch on as the two happily munch on them.

"Looks like you all are getting along quite well."- Nurse Joy says as she steps into the tent and starts packing up some of the tools here into her bag.

"Nurse Joy... I... we.."- Soul starts to stutter from embarrassment.

"Haha, its alright, in fact I was just about to go look for you three, I need your help with something."- Nurse Joy says in an amused voice as she looks at us and the Pokémon.

"What is it Nurse Joy? We'll definitely do our best to help out."- I reply eagerly as I get up.

"I was wondering if the three of you could look after these Pokémon over the next couple of days, their condition is stable now and I'm afraid I won't be able to watch over them at the Pokémon center what with all the severely injured Pokémon that need my attention."- Nurse Joy requests us.

"Is that something you even need to ask, of course we'll do it."- Heart replies happily, you can clearly see that she is almost going to dance around in joy.

"Oh, the three of you are here. Excuse me Nurse Joy but could I borrow Heart Soul and Sage for a moment."- Officer Jenney says as she appears at the entrance of the tent alongside Bugsy.

"Sure Officer. Now you three take good care of those Pokémon. I'll be heading back to the Pokémon Center if anyone needs me just drop by."- Nurse Joy excuses herself and departs. We then follow Officer Jenny and Bugsy wondering what this was all about.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter-14**

We were extremely curious about the reason for us being called upon and kept wondering if we had done anything to grab the attention of these two important personages in particular. We were led to an adjacent tent housing all the stolen goods; a couple of Police Officers were standing behind a table in front of the tent running a lost and found like facility. Officer Jenny and Bugsy went into the depths of the tent and we followed in after them with, there were loads of goods arranged neatly inside and the three of us along with the three Pokémon put under our care were looking around at all the various knick knacks. Officer Jenny and Bugsy stopped in front of two small crates kept deep in the tent; I also looked at them and recognized them to be the ones we recovered from the two Team Rocket members we encountered in the Ilex forest previously.

"Do the three of you have any idea what's in these crates you recovered."- Bugsy asks and we shake our heads to show we are in the dark with regards to their contents.

"Not only did you contribute a lot in saving the town, you three also thoroughly ruined Team Rocket's plan this time around by recovering these."- Officer Jenny commends us as she opens the crates up for us to have a look at their contents. One of the crates has a lot of soft padding to protect its delicate contents and after brushing apart the top layers three Pokémon eggs are revealed to us.

We stare on at the contents in wonder, but what truly makes my jaw drop to the floor are the contents of the other crate; in it are loads of files and design drawings marked with 'Top Secret property of Devon Corporation' boldly in red over them. These are surely extremely important for the Devon Corporation based in Hoenn, as the largest company in Hoenn capable of rivalling Kanto's Silph Co. there was no need to doubt regarding the value of these files; no wonder Team Rocket was after them.

"These files contain highly valuable information and data from the research of the Devon Corporation from Hoenn and it is instrumental we return them to the company's representatives who arrived with the Hoenn envoy party."- Bugsy explains to us.

"That's right, returning these to their rightful owners are of paramount importance to maintain good relations with our friends from Hoenn. Unfortunately the town's restoration has us completely occupied here so we were planning to request you to return these when the three of you go to Goldenrod city along with the caravan. Seeing as you were the ones to recover these items in the first place I was hoping you could see it through to the end and escort this package to its destination, it would greatly reduce our worries if the three of you help out."- Officer Jenny asks us. Apparently the recent events have given the three of us quite a bit of fame and goodwill among the townsfolk, we humbly accept the task and after carefully resealing the crates we take them with us to store it carefully in our **Odd Shop & Cafe's **store room until our departure for Goldenrod city. Surprisingly the place had survived with minimal damage thanks to the efforts of a few of our loyal trainer customers and some townsfolk who regarded it as an important land mark of town and mounted a lot of defences around it.

We helped out with the town's restoration as much as possible over the next couple of days, Mudkip, Torchic and Treecko having fully recovered after a good night's rest were also doing their best to help out. We had grown much closer now especially Heart and Torchic, she had found out that Torchic loved sweet food stuffs and spoilt her silly when she took her home with her, Torchic now followed closely behind Heart where ever she went and would get very upset if you tried to separate them. Needless to say Soul and I were also trying our best to make Mudkip and Treecko's stay at our place as comfy a possible, we paid a lot of attention to their likes and dislikes to make sure we didn't cause them any discomfort(What can I say, looks like we all had some ulterior motives). We also took them into the Ilex forest with us frequently as we had to send our forest friends back home after thanking them a lot with tasty treats and massages for their help in saving the town, there was also an increased demand for lumber to restore the many damaged and destroyed town structures. We also introduced the three to our many friends in the forest and they got along really well as they played together a lot when we were too busy with work.

A full week went by in the blink of an eye before the situation in town stabilised and the caravan was ready to head out to Goldenrod city. Heart was very eager to go the fair before but was now very reluctant as we would have to part ways from our new Hoenn Pokémon friends, the communication lines were repaired just two days go and Nurse Joy had immediately informed the officials at Goldenrod city about them having rescued the envoy's Pokémon and recovered the stolen goods. The envoys were extremely happy on finding out the good news; they were immensely grateful to us for helping them out and were very eager for our visit to return their belongings.

We got ready early the next morning and helped load up the trucks with our cargo including the two crates to be returned to their rightful owners. The three of us didn't speak much about it but instead cherished the remaining time we would get to spend with Treecko, Mudkip and Torchic so for most of the journey they had our undivided attention as we played and fooled around. Torchic was just too cute and full of energy just like Heart, she absolutely hated to lose or be ignored and would break down with a really pitiful tear filled look when upset causing Heart to melt and go all soft and mushy and finally pick her up into her arms to cuddle and comfort her; Heart finally met someone as diabolical as her. The relationship between Soul and Mudkip was really funny, what with him being all cool and serious all the time and cute little Mudkip cuddling up to him right when he's least prepared for it was hilarious and Heart and I never stopped teasing him about it; regardless of that it didn't mean that Soul didn't look after him well, it was just that Soul was sort of shy in front of others, I'd actually seen him cuddling with Mudkip one day and I swear his face became as pale as _Moo Moo Milk_ when he saw me, anyway after much threatening /pleading on his part I agreed to never mention this in front of anyone especially Heart. Treecko was sort of like Soul that way as he always portrayed a calm and collected attitude in front of everyone, he was sort of like the responsible big brother and often kept the other two Pokémon from trouble but all that cool guy act fell apart that day when I pulled a prank on him by setting trap at his favourite perch on the tree in the backyard. As soon as he had climbed up to his spot he tripped a wire causing a _Poke Doll_ I'd hidden in the leaves to pop out, he was so startled he slipped and fell into the pond; I could almost see the vein pulsing on his forehead as he chased me around for three whole hours after that.

As we prepare camp for the night in the forest we can't help but reminiscence of the week that went by, sure the whole attack on the town by Team Rocket was a catastrophe but it also let the six of us meet up. That night felt like one of the longest nights in my life, both in this one and the previous. It was mid morning when we made it out of the forest and we could finally see Goldenrod city off in the distance from our spot in the back of the pickup truck. When our caravan got closer we were astonished to find a large welcoming party waiting for us by the south-east main road of the city, there were a lot of big names at the front of the party such as Mr. Pokémon, the Pokémon Professors Oak, Elm and even Birch as well as Goldenrod city's Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, standing in front of all these VIPs was none other than Steven Stone the son of the Devon Corporation Chairman and Champion of the Hoenn region. All these famous personages were gathered here just to receive us apparently.

As soon as Heart, Soul and I got off the back of the truck Steven and company came up to us.

"It.. Its an honour meeting you Mr. Steven Stone sir... Here ..Here's the items that were stolen by Team Rocket sir."- I start to stutter as I present the crates I had hastily pulled out upon seeing just who had come to receive us.

"Haha, no need to be so nervous and please just call me Steven or it would make me feel uncomfortable."- 'Steven' said with an amused look.

" uuu.. really you don't mind... but..but how could I. It... it is truly such an honour I am extremely humbled, to be able to meet the Champion Steven Stone in person... oh how wonderful this oww..."- My crazy fan girling moment is rudely interrupted by a vicious kick to my side by Heart who apparently couldn't take it anymore.

"Quit fooling around."- Soul says from the side and continues on calmly conversing with Steven-"Please forgive my stupid big brother's antics, here are your goods please check them to see if everything is in order."

As Steven goes through the contents-

"Hahaha, the energy of youth, what a wonderful sight to see."- Professor Oak says as he walks up to us accompanied by Mr. Pokémon and the two other Professors Elm and Birch.

Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip immediately rush over and jump onto Professor Birch while letting out happy and excited calls. "Oh I was so worried about you three, its good to see you all looking so healthy."- He says while half laughing and half crying, he is lost in petting, cuddling and carefully checking them for injuries for a while.

"Get a hold of yourself man, are you a Pokémon Professor or not. Besides shouldn't you be thanking this fine young trio for their help?"- Professor Oak admonishes Professor Birch in a joking manner.

"That's right, where are my manners? Well, on behalf of the Hoenn region's envoy and Pokémon Lab I express my heartfelt gratitude to you three."- Professor Birch sincerely thanks us, even offering us a bow which makes us feel really awkward and just as we vehemently try to down play our deeds and get rid of this weird atmosphere-

"On behalf of the Devon Corporation I also wish to express my deepest gratitude in recovering these documents."- Steven adds on with a graceful bow, and if that isn't enough-

"We also wish to offer you three young heroes our utmost gratitude." – Professor Elm and Mr. Pokémon also thank us, it turns out that the Pokémon Eggs where obtained by Mr Pokémon and was of vital importance to Professor Elm's research so he had offered them up to the Professor for his study.

We were getting dizzy, what with all these VIPs thanking and praising us so much.

"It.. it was nothing... I'm sure anyone would have done the same thing had they encountered those situations."- I try to explain. "That's right..That's right."- Heart and Soul nod their heads furiously as they back me up.

"That's enough now, can't you see you're making them feel uncomfortable. Besides they have had a rather long and tiring trip I'm sure, so why don't we all continue this conversation indoors as we relax with some refreshments."- Professor Oak comes to our rescue.

"Why don't you three go head along with them, I still have a lot of business to take care off. We'll meet up again for lunch at the **Golden Spoon Restaurant**."- Dadsays to us.

"But.. But"- as we protest "Don't worry I'll come along with you."- Mom and Kurt offer at the same time and then glare at each other fiercely for stealing the other's line.

"*Sigh* Give it a rest you two, its been so long since we all met up can't you get along for a brief moment."- Professor Oak exclaims as he leads our party down the streets. Since all these old friends have got together after a long time they start to chat as we walk and we just listen from the side and only speak when spoken to in a very stiff and nervous manner.

"Ah.. With all these issues resolved the Exhibition fair can finally proceed on track."- Professor Birch lets out in relief. It seems that although everyone tried their best to continue the fair, the damage Team Rocket caused took a toll on everyone's morale.

All these VIPs were naturally put up in the best Hotel rooms in the city and we were invited to accompany them for some refreshments at their hotel's roof top restaurant. The three of us mostly just listened as Mom and Kurt conversed with the others catching up on old times. Heart being too restless picked up a plate containing a pastry from the table and offered it to Torchic and invited her to sit on her lap, to Professor Birch's great surprise Torchic happily left his side and jumped onto Heart's lap comfortably settling down to eat as Heart gently pet her.

"I've heard that the three of you will be starting your own journeys soon. Here, as a token of my appreciation I would like to give you these and wish you all the very best on your travels."- Professor Oak suddenly said as he offered each of us our very own _Pokédex_ and wished us well when he heard from Mom and Kurt of our upcoming journey. The importance of the _Pokédex_ could not be emphasized enough; we were given a lengthy explanation about it at the Pokémon Trainer Journey seminar at the end of school. The _Pokédex_ was not just used to scan and record the data on a Pokémon but also served as a device to monitor and check the distribution of Pokémon, as a trainer travelled all the data he gathers would be uploaded to the various lab servers so they could be analysed by researchers, it also functioned as a personal ID sort of like a passport and also as an interface for all your Pokémon so you could monitor their status. We get so very excited that after inputting our details and registering the _Pokédex_ we immediately scan the data for the three Hoenn starters to test out the _Pokédex_ , only basic info was given as we hadn't caught them-

 **Treecko, the Wood Gecko Pokémon. Treecko are able to climb smooth vertical walls and use their thick tail to attack opponents. Since Treecko build their nests in large trees it is said that those trees will live a very long life.**

 **Torchic, the Chick Pokémon. Torchic has a place inside its body where it keeps its flame. Give it a hug—it will be glowing with warmth. This Pokémon is covered all over by a fluffy coat of down.**

 **Mudkip, the Mud Fish Pokémon. Mudkip uses the sensitive radar receptors on its head-fin to determine what's going on around it. In a pinch, it can brandish enough power to crush rocks.**

Even with all these benefits the _Pokédex_ was not available to all, firstly because it was very expensive about 20k Poke Dollars for one and actually acquiring them was also not easy even if you had the money, you either needed to have some connections with reputed Pokémon Professors or take up a qualification exam at the nearest Pokémon center to be eligible. These measures were put in place to ensure that the _Pokédex_ did not fall into the wrong hands, there was even special emphasis on the test as even if one did not have much money they would be able to avail a good discount if their test scores were good. The three of us didn't really need to take the test at all, thanks to Mom and Kurt's status applying for one wouldn't be an issue but we still adamantly refused to just rely on their recommendations and took the test with the rest of our school friends on the last day of school, of course we all passed with flying colours.

"Oh.. you are starting your journeys soon, well in that case this makes things easier for me. I was wondering what to give the three of you as a reward for helping our company, why don't you drop by our stalls in the fair later and I'll set each of you up with one our finest packages for new trainers with all the basic essential gear and I'll even offer you half price discounts on any other products you wish to purchase."- Steven offered us. We are overwhelmed and try to decline but are shot down, with Steven himself expressing such goodwill it would be rude of us if we reject his gratitude.

So it was decided, after having some snacks the three of us accompanied Steven and Professor Birch and the three Hoenn Pokémon as we made our way over to the fairgrounds where the envoys had set up a base of operations. Mom and Kurt stayed back with the others and continued to chat, they weren't too worried now as we had the Hoenn League Champion watching over us, with another reminder to check if we had all the money we had saved up so far and reconfirming the meeting spot and time we had to show up for lunch we went our separate ways. This time around Treecko, Mudkip and Torchic accompanied us and showed us around all the interesting stalls at the fair just like how we played host to them and showed the sights around our town before.

"They seem to really like you, and here I was all worried if they would be nervous in a new environment with lots of strangers all around, they are quite young, less than a year old in fact."- Professor Birch said with a wide smile on his face as he gazed on at the sight of us being led around by the Pokémon.

After half an hour of walking and quite a few deviations as we got side tracked we arrived at the core region of the fair. There were many stalls here from many top brands and of course most of them were assigned to the Envoy's Devon Corporation. Even among all the various stalls set up by the Devon Corporation they were split up each selling different goods, there was a stall specifically selling _Bags,_ some had _medicines_ others had _TMs_ and _HMs_ and there was even a _Bike_ shop. We were enthralled by all the stuff put on display and itching to dive right in to check the place out, looking at the sight of us nearly drooling Steven and Professor Birch just laughed a bit and quickly led us to receive our rewards and make any other purchases.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter-15**

We were first led to the stall selling _Backpacks_ , the stall manager upon seeing Steven leading the group quickly got up to greet him. After exchanging greetings and explaining the situation to the stall manager, the manager then turned to us and said-

"Thank you for lending us a hand my young friends, as a token of appreciation from our company please choose from any of the _Bags_ in the top row."- He said while pointing to the area where all the best quality _Bags_ were displayed. We hesitated only slightly and then got busy choosing from the various types and designs. Heart picked a standard design _Backpack_ albeit one with a lot of colourful embroidery patterns that looked very pretty, Soul picked a single strap style _Backpack_ with blue white and grey camo-print and I picked a khaki coloured rugged adventurer's styled _Backpack._ Though they all looked different from the outside they all had some things in common such as they could all be securely fastened to one's back, leaving our hands free and weren't like a satchel or dangling purse type which would hamper our movement and not to forget they were top of the line products with a 10 cubic meter space in each compartment and made of very sturdy and resilient material of the highest grade, they even had strong weather resistance and a weight reduction feature.

We were then led around the other stalls where we were gifted starter kits for _Medicines_ , _Camping sets_ and other assorted I _tems_ for beginners. After receiving all the basic requirements we decided to further explore and buy some of the other things that caught our eye, we'd already saved a lot thanks to Professor Oak's  & Steven's gifts, and the discount on other merchandise promised to us ensured we could really go all out on this shopping spree, we each bought an amazing _Multi Terrain Bike_ , a _Super rod_ fishing set, a _Poké gear_ with all _card accessories_ for different features, even a _Scuba diving_ set and a portable gen-set cycling machine with large batteries to produce electric power on the go- some of our equipment would need electricity to run after all. We also bought items we individually liked such as a _Fashion design and Embroidery_ set for Heart, a high quality _Camera kit_ with both still photography and video capturing features for Soul and an adventurer set with _Dowsing machine, Flash lights and Climbing kit_ complete with ropes, harnesses and even two picks with inter-changeable blades for varied requirements for myself.

Seeing as we still had some time left over till we had to meet up with our families for lunch, Professor Birch invited us over to his remote lab setup here while Steven excused himself stating he had some important business he needed to attend to as well as reporting back to his higher ups on the successful recovery of the stolen goods.

"You all are really lucky to be able to meet and spend so much time with Steven; he's really busy what with him being the Champion and the young heir to the Devon Corporation. The only reason he even rushed over here on such short notice was to help me rescue these Pokémon and recover his company's priceless research files."- Professor Birch explains to us.

"It's ok Professor we understand."- I say.

"Yeah we really don't mind Professor."- Heart adds.

"We're already very grateful for all the time he's given us not to mention all these gifts."- Soul says.

Professor Birch then gives us a tour of his facilities here briefly going into his research on Pokémon population distribution and behaviour of Pokémon in the wild. Most of the research related words go over Heart's head as she is more involved in playing with Torchic, Soul is listening with mild interest just to be polite and I'm the only one really interested in Professor Birch's study. We stick around some more and play with the Pokémon as the Professor explains his plans to put on a performance showcasing the Hoenn region and its region starters over the next few days.

It is finally getting late and we should be getting back soon to meet up with our families for lunch but we really hate to leave our new Pokémon friends, although its only Heart and Torchic who are openly expressing their hesitation to part, Mudkip and Soul also have a weird expressions on and I even spot Treecko shoot a quick glance at me and fidget nervously. Seeing this Professor Birch laughs heartily and promises us that we'd be able to visit again later whenever we want and play together. Finally after a tear filled parting between Heart and Torchic we head for lunch, while also promising to come back and visit really soon.

Although the food served was great and our family members kept trying to cheer us up by asking about all the stuff we'd purchased in preparation for our journey we were still feeling a little down after parting with Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip. After some getting through the rest of lunch time in a daze I try to pull myself and the other two up as getting upset would lead us nowhere, I try to find a distraction by asking my Parents if there is anything we could do to help out during our stay here for the fair.

"As a matter of fact sport, there is something we need your help with."- Dad says to us after lunch leading the way towards the set of stalls designated to the caravan from Azalea Town.

Our attention is soon attracted by one particular stall that is sort of arranged to be a make-shift cafe. Standing in front of the sign reading ' **Odd Shop & Cafe'** is none other than our cafe's business partner Mrs. Mathews- "Well, what do you think? You three didn't expect the cafe you started would get a spot here did you? The **Odd Shop & Cafe** is now an official land mark of Azalea town, it's only fitting for it to get a spot in the stalls assigned to our town, now stop gawking and lend a hand here."- She says to us as we approach.

We soon become busy working at the stall with all our other school mates who came to attend the fair, but we make it a point to request for a break to go see Mudkip, Torchic and Treecko when it's time for their showcase performance. We cheer them on loudly from the audience and even visit them after the show and we even invite Professor Birch to come along to visit our cafe. It turns out we were not the only ones with this idea as Mom and Kurt had invited Professors Oak and Elm along with Mr. Pokémon, Steven, even Goldenrod city's Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny over that very evening. With all these VIPs gracing our small establishment everyone puts in extra effort, soon we have served them a table full of our finest delicacies.

"Mmm... so this is the famous pie that has my cousin in Azalea town crying over her ever increasing weight."- Officer Jenny says as she digs into a slice of our signature Syrup glazed Berry Pie with a scope of Ice cream.

"Mmm, absolutely delectable."- Professor Oak also gives his compliments. Soon everyone is complimenting us on the fine food and service except Professor Birch who is apparently too busy with his fourth helping of our pie.

"Haaa... so refreshing, I'm definitely coming back here again."- Professor Birch finally says after washing all the food down with a glass of iced berry juice. To mark this special event Soul takes a picture of everyone dining at our cafe with his new _camera,_ we decide to frame it and put it up in the main cafe back home _._

"I heard that it was your kids who started and run this cafe, I must say that is very impressive."- Nurse Joy enquires of Kurt and my parents.

"That's right..."- They proudly say and go into the story of the establishment of the **Odd Shop & Cafe.**

We're kept very busy the next few days especially after Professor Oak pours heaps of praises for our cafe in his radio show the crowd visiting our cafe increased by five times, we even got to meet and catch up with the friends we'd made back at camp- Mary, Clair and Damian who live in the city had came to visit us on hearing about our cafe on the radio. We still manage to make time to visit every single showcase performance by Torchic, Mudkip and Treecko right up to the last one. We definitely see more of them now though seeing as how Professor Birch has become a fan of our food and would grace our cafe at least once a day. The rest of our free time we spend exploring the fair and occasionally play the many games or make some more purchases like that time we bought a dozen _Berry/Herb Pots_ each along with a few bags of _Mulch_ (it was amazing how you could grow _Berry_ Bushes and herbs in such small enclosures- they seem to be a bit like an _Item Bag_ with a larger space inside and the plants grown in them don't disappear after the first harvest like in the game and stay alive as long as they are cared for properly), I even spent a long time in front of the stall of Fallarbor's famous glass workshop ogling at a case displaying a complete set of _Crystal Flutes_ \- black, white, blue, red and yellow- I had a major internal conflict on whether to buy it or not as they were quite expensive but in the end I resolved myself to buy them as I knew exactly how useful they were back in the game. The Glass Blower Mr. Reed even gave me a free booklet on basic flute songs and a few simple lessons on how to play the instruments afterward, here it's not just opening the bag and picking the use option like in the game, one actually has to play a proper sequence for the flutes to show their effects. Thankfully I did not neglect my flute practice after that time at Pokémon camp so it was no problem at all for me to get a hang of them. As we proceed in exploring the fair further I even spot that con artist of a Magikarp seller from the anime at one point, I steer Soul and Heart clear of him.

We decide to go visit Torchic, Mudkip and Treecko over at Professor Birch's place, all their showcase performances are officially over and with the Hoenn exhibition fair more than three quarters of the way finished there's not much time left for us to spend with them before they have to leave. As we get closer to the lab building I spot Treecko looking out the window and for once I rush up to be the first one to greet them today instead of Heart. Seeing me racing in their direction Treecko heads back inside and the lab door opens partially as I spot Treecko behind the door, I'm so very touched that Treecko would open the door and welcome me so warmly. I reach the door and push it open fully to give everyone inside a warm greeting-"Hey...*splosh*...*clang*..."- no sooner had I uttered the first word of greeting that I am doused with a bucket of cold water from overhead.

"Treecko...ko..ko..Tree...cko...ko..ko."- Treecko starts laughing at my condition and Heart and Soul also start laughing loudly behind me. It looks like Treecko learnt _Payback,_ well figuratively speaking.

"Why you..."- I say in mock rage as I chase after Treecko who continuously swishes his tail in a mocking manner and casting an amused look with his sharp eyes at me.

"Hahaha... Alright now that's enough playing around you two."- Professor comes up to welcome us and Treecko jumps up onto his shoulders to seek refuge from me. He doesn't forget to stick his tongue out at me from his safe perch though which almost incited me to chase him some more.

Professor Birch offers me a towel to dry off before sitting on the chair. We talk with him briefly and continue playing with the three Pokémon later, when it's finally time to leave it's the usually calm and cold Soul who speaks up-"I'm really going to miss you.*sigh*" as he rubs the fin on Mudkip's head before getting up to leave. Looking at this Professor Birch has a deeply pondering look in his eyes for a while.

"Wait up a bit you three. Come inside, I want to discuss something important with you."- He invites us in once more. As we sit on the couch in expectation, Professor Birch still has a deep look as if he is pondering over something important, finally he speaks-"Would the three of you like to help me raise these Pokémon?"

"WHAT?"- The three of us simultaneously jump up in surprise.

"Well, what I'm asking is if you'd be interested in having these Pokémon as your first partners? You'll be starting off on your own journey soon and I see you still don't have any Pokémon partner yet so...Besides I can tell that you've grown attached to them and they seem to be very fond of you as well. So, what do you say? Do you agree?"- Professor Birch asks again.

I pinch myself to check if I am dreaming, then when I feel the pain and confirm that I'm awake I proceed to rub my ears to confirm I didn't mishear anything. Heart and Soul react much faster than me as they dive at Torchic and Mudkip respectively and hug them tight while yelling-"Of course we agree." The two Pokémon are startled at first but soon reciprocate the hug and start to cuddle them in return. I snap back and look at Treecko as he stares at me intently from his perch upon the Professor's shoulders and ask-"Hey Treecko.. would would you like to be my partner and go on a journey with me?" I nervously wait for his response, I know that all three of them understand what's going on and are very much aware of what we are talking about. Treecko stares at me for a few more moments making me feel extremely tensed before jumping onto my shoulders and playfully biting my ear.

"Hahaha. That settles it then, congratulations you three on getting your first Pokémon and I wish you the very best of luck on your journeys."- Professor Birch declares in a loud excited voice.

"Professor where are Mudkip's and the other's _Poke ball_?"- Soul enquires eagerly.

"Well, seeing as they were still too young and we were coming here as part of the envoy I haven't really caught them. You see I was waiting for us to get back to my lab in Little Root town before catching them in _Poke balls_ for new trainers."- Professor Birch says awkwardly while scratching his cheeks.

"Whaaat? So we have to catch them ourselves? No matter, do any of you two have any _Poke balls_?"- Heart is way too excited about getting Torchic as her first partner Pokémon.

"I don't have any regular _Poke balls_ but hang on."- I say as I open my bag and pull out many of the _Poke balls_ I'd made and stocked up over time. All of them are my custom _Fusion Poke balls_. "Pick whichever one you like."- I offer as I pick a fusion between a _Friend ball_ and a _Luxury ball._ They are my favourite so far as the scent from the _Green Apricorn_ has a soothing aroma that calms the Pokémon making it friendlier and the _Luxury ball_ as stated in the game has features that make it very comfortable for the Pokémon residing within.

Looking at the pile of special _Poke balls_ heaped in front of them, everyone is stunned briefly before quickly coming to and Heart and Soul quickly select the same type of _Poke ball_ as me. We then hold them in front of our soon to be partners and wait for them, they look at the _Poke ball_ for a while before looking up into our eyes and then at the _Poke ball_ again before coming forward and tapping them. The _Poke balls_ open and pull in the Pokémon, they shake for a while in our hands before they release clear 'ting' sound and settle down. We do a brief dance of celebration as we obtain the Pokémon partners we always dreamed about, scratch that they were even better than the ones in our wildest dreams. We release them from their _Poke balls_ and they also join in on the celebrations.

"Well, are you going to give them a nickname?"- Professor Birch asks us, to which we furiously nod our heads. Heart names Torchic as Scarlett, Soul decides to name Mudkip as Finn and after some deliberation I decide to call Treecko Lexus. Now our _Pokedex_ can fully record their data-

 **Treecko: A Grass type Pokémon**

 **Ability: Overgrow**

 **Gender: Male Height: 1'9''-0.5m Weight: 11.3lbs- 5.1kg**

 **Moves Known:** _Pound, Leer_ **& **_Absorb._

 **Mudkip: A Water type Pokémon**

 **Ability: Torrent**

 **Gender: Male Height: 1'04''-0.4m Weight: 17.1lbs- 7.7kg**

 **Moves Known:** _Tackle, Growl_ **& **_Water Gun._

 **Torchic: A Fire type Pokémon**

 **Ability: Blaze**

 **Gender: Female Height: 1'9''-0.5m Weight: 5.9lbs- 2.6kg**

 **Moves Known:** _Scratch, Growl_ **& **_Ember._

We excitedly thank Professor Birch and then hastily excuse ourselves to return to our families and tell them the amazing news.


End file.
